News update for Wed 14 May 2025

Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...

May 14, 2025

Welcome to your TrueNorth news update where every weekday afternoon we share curated articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.

Please share with friends, family, colleagues - as good journalism is always worth supporting.

Share TrueNorth News

Scroll down for the news and views you need to know today…

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

BREAKING NEWS: Bradfield back ‘in doubt’ as Liberals hope Kapterian can hold off late Boele surge - The Guardian

Sussan Ley makes history, but faces unprecedented levels of difficulty - The Conversation

As if by visual metaphor, Sussan Ley’s task seemed both obvious and impossible in her first press conference as the new Liberal leader.

Three years ago this month, Ley had done something uncannily similar to what Ted O’Brien was doing now. Then, it had been her standing next to Peter Dutton as his dutiful deputy. The freshly installed pair talked a big game about the contest ahead, assured of the urgency of their mission and the potency of their message.

Ley had enthusiastically supported Dutton’s leadership. But now in 2025, it was Ley fronting the press, this time as the new leader following the catastrophic rejection of that Dutton-Ley project, the Liberal Party’s worst ever defeat.

Amy Remiekis: Sussan Ley is yet to make her mark in 24 years in politics - The New Daily

Before twisting herself into the role she believed Dutton’s deputy should fulfil, Ley was best known for resigning from the Turnbull ministry following claims she misused her travel allowance when finalising the purchase of a Gold Coast unit, something she has always denied.

But beyond that, Ley has always appeared at pains to convince people she’s not the person they see on the parliament floor.

Also read >

Ley to go slow on shadow cabinet with Nationals stoush first on agenda - ABC News
From punk rocker to tax policy expert: who is Sussan Ley, Australia’s first female opposition leader? - The Guardian
From nuclear to nature laws, here’s where new Liberal leader Sussan Ley stands on 4 energy and environment flashpoints - The Conversation
The Liberals have a long road to relevance – and Sussan Ley’s slim victory means she begins on shaky foundations - The Guardian
Ley’s climate and environment record – walking a fine line, but plenty of damage done - Renew Economy
Jacinta Price says 'lots' of Australians want her as Prime Minister - National Indigenous Times

Cabinet battles - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny

Political scientist Dr Jill Sheppard and independent electoral analyst Ben Raue unpack the latest results on seats and preference flows, the fractional battles in the party room and the two-party system. With some of the election dust settled, what does it tell us about the relevancy of two-party preferred polling? Can Albanese maintain party unity with a landslide victory, a huge backbench and a diversity of voices? And will new Liberal party leader, Sussan Ley, be able to keep her party room onside? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Jill Sheppard and Ben Raue talk to Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga about interesting results, cabinet battles and how to create unity without silencing diverse voices.

Listen to Democracy Sausage Podcast

Share TrueNorth News

Memo to the Coalition: be grateful for what you’ve got - Inside Story

Time for the Libs and Nats to take a breather from the Coalition? History suggests otherwise

Among the many gems secreted in the Earle Page papers held by the National Library of Australia is the first-ever federal coalition agreement between a conservative rural party and a conservative urban party. Drafted in the spindly handwriting of Stanley Bruce in February 1923, it concluded negotiations the city-based Nationalist Party leader had conducted with Page in his guise as Country Party leader, thus resolving the indecisive outcome of the federal election of late the previous year. Rarely seen and of no material value in itself, it marks the start of the nation’s most important party-political partnership.

Marina Hyde: Poor Trump: you can’t even accept a luxury jet from Qatar without being called corrupt these days - The Guardian

Even his Maga pals are questioning the lavish gift. Don’t they know not to look a wooden gift horse in the mouth?

If you’re familiar with your folklore, you’ll know the story of The Emperor’s New Plane, in which some barely-even-wily out-of-towners turn up with an offer to give a vain and selfish leader a new $400m Boeing 747-8. The merits of accepting this “flying palace” are invisible only to those who are stupid or incompetent, which means the emperor would literally be an idiot not to take it, right?

Today’s cartoon by Cathy Wilcox

TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

Share TrueNorth News

What should Labor do with its majority? - Pearls and Irritations

The defining tension of Labor’s second term in office will be over how to interpret the landslide victory.

Was it a sweeping mandate to enact bold reform or a vindication of a cautious approach to policy-making during the last term?

Despite hoping for bold reform myself, I am inclined to believe the latter. In a time of global uncertainty (a phrase I am sick of), voters backed the incumbent government.

It is often said that oppositions do not win elections, governments lose them. This time around, I think the inverse was true:

‘Factional assassins’ and Albanese’s new ministry - 7am Podcast

When Anthony Albanese’s new ministry was sworn in this week, it was overshadowed by the axing of Ed Husic and Mark Dreyfus. Husic in particular didn’t go quietly, calling Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles a “factional assassin”. After a landslide victory – with 93 seats and counting – the prime minister could choose from a significant talent pool to assemble the ministry. But the process was limited by longstanding factional rules. Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Jason Koutsoukis, on whether factions help or hurt the Labor Party – and who won out.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also > Political influence and powerful allies: how relative unknown Sam Rae catapulted himself into Labor’s ministry - The Guardian

Political parties can recover after a devastating election loss. But the Liberals will need to think differently - The Conversation

The 2025 election revealed a Coalition policy wasteland. Some, such as the idea of a nuclear power plants across the country, were daft. Others, like cuts to the fuel excise for a year – coinciding with a decline in petrol prices – were dross. Others again simply made it appear the Coalition was making it up as it went along. It would be hard to conceive of anything further removed from the best examples we have of policy rebuilding by shattered parties.

Finally, there are the people. Who, exactly, are the Liberals trying to win over?

There is no Robert Menzies on the horizon. And there is no Liberal movement speaking a language of progress rather than reaction.

Share TrueNorth News

Bernard Keane: Reversal of fortune: How the populist right flamed out in a matter of months - Crikey

How did the MAGA Right go from triumph to defeat so rapidly? While they can make excuses, their basic problem is they have no interest in governing well, only governing for themselves.

What a difference a few months makes. In January, with Donald Trump about to be sworn in, MAGA Republicanism and its overseas mimics seemed the way of the future. Trump’s second win seemed a historical moment in Western democracy, ushering in an era of populist economics, anti-immigration and the triumph of white male resentment.

Here, Peter Dutton’s Coalition led the polls over a first-term Labor government and a prime minister derided as weak and woke. Resentful young men, we were told, were shifting to the right.

Is Your Facebook Group Actually Run by Billionaire Corporations? - Punters Politics Podcast

Big corporations are pretending to be grassroots community groups to push their agenda, hiding behind friendly-sounding names while pumping dark money into Australian politics. We dig into who's really behind these fake organizations and expose how they're trying to influence punters while keeping their corporate connections secret.

Listen to Punters Politics Podcast

It's us and them now. It's time to dump Trump - THE POLITICS

The mad, bad and increasingly dangerous American president was a winner for Labor this election. But Australia will be the biggest loser if it sticks with him.

What should Australia do given the scale of Trump’s evident criminality? It might sound trite, but the first thing is to be grateful that our democratic institutions remain intact. This is the unheralded achievement of the first Albanese government which acted quietly to repair the damage done by the former Coalition government on independent government agencies. It’s a slippery slope when a government gets used to using public money for private/political reward as the Liberals did on an industrial scale throughout its near decade in power.

Inspired by a local group of people in Sydney's north who were looking for t-shirts to wear on their regular walks, Democracy Walks champions, supports and actively engages in our democracy.

CLICK here to see Democracy Walks’ t-shirt designs - and join the democracy walkers today!