News update for Wed 16 April 2025
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
17 days until the May 3 federal election
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.
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 - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Niki Savva: The knives are out’: Dutton has to win over voters, and win back his party - The SMH/Age
For weeks, Peter Dutton has behaved like a man doing high-speed doughnuts in one of those monster utes, hoping the smoke from the burnouts will cover the wreckage left behind at his last stop.
First he was against working from home, then he wasn’t. First he wanted a series of referendums, then he didn’t. First he was gushingly pro-Trump, then he wasn’t.
After Donald Trump expressed contemptuous delight in having world leaders line up to kiss his arse, Dutton toned down his boast that he would be able to secure a better deal with the US president on tariffs.
Then along came Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
According to my sources, Taylor’s surrogates have spent weeks sussing out the disposition of colleagues, taking the kind of temperature checks regarded as precursors to a move against the leader. He has made some surprising gains across factions and states.
Read more from Niki Savva for The SMH/Age (paywall)
Also read >
Debatable impact: Albanese and Dutton to face off again but experts question whether showdown will shift votes - The Guardian
Half way through the campaign, how are the major party leaders faring? - The Conversation
Why bagging China could deny Dutton crucial votes he needs to win - Pearls and Irritations
Why the Coalition’s tone-deaf diss track was bound to hit all the wrong notes - The Conversation
Pistol Pete shoots himself in the foot - David Hardaker for The Politics
Labor and the Greens likely to gain Senate seats at the election - The Conversation
The Russians aren’t coming: Peter Dutton’s poor judgment distracts from Australia’s rare geopolitical opportunity - The Guardian
Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plan could lead to major electricity shortages, analysis says - The Guardian
Coalition’s proposal overestimates the reliability of Australia’s ageing coal generators, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says.
Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer has overestimated the reliability of ageing generators and could lead to major electricity shortages, according to a new analysis.
The Coalition has pledged to put taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites around Australia and has pointed to modelling by Frontier Economics that shows the country’s ageing coal fleet would need to take up the slack in electricity generation while they are built.
Also read >
Never mind Liberal v Labor – right now, it’s Big Gas v the rest - The New Daily
Coalition’s coal agenda will be the cause of the blackouts they wish on renewables - Ketan Joshi for Renew Economy
How Albanese is using Trump as a weapon - 7am Podcast
Donald Trump’s presence looms large on the campaign trail, as both leaders face questions about how they would handle his trade war. The market chaos and escalating tensions between China and the US may have once seemed like the last thing Labor needed during an election campaign. But insiders now believe they’ve been granted a rare opportunity: to hold firm in the face of uncertainty and prove that changing government in this global political climate is too great a risk. Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Jason Koutsoukis, on Anthony Albanese’s Trump strategy – and how Peter Dutton is fighting back.
Lucy Hamilton: The Coalition commits to Christian Nationalism - Pearls and Irritations
The Republican Party thought it could ride the tiger of the Christian Right: instead, that movement swallowed the party whole.
There a presidential candidate’s victory could depend on their success at gaining the Christian Right leaders’ endorsement. The news released on Sunday that Coalition candidates submitted a Christian principles statement to the Australian Christian Lobby’s (ACL’s) voter advice site signals they are making the same dangerous gamble.
The ACL is not lobbying for the traditional Australian definition of Christian, which leans more towards “live and let live”. Rather, this is an organisation committed to coercive, American-style Christianity.
Read more from Lucy Hamilton for Pearls and Irritations
Safe seat syndrome? Why some hospitals get upgrades and others miss out - The Conversation
On his campaign trail, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged A$200 million to upgrade St John of God Midland Public Hospital in Perth. He promised more beds and operating theatres, and a redesigned obstetrics and neonatal unit.
It followed other recent election promises from the Labor government, including $120 million for new birthing facilities at Sydney’s planned Rouse Hill Hospital and $150 million to build a health centre in southern Adelaide.
New and expanded health facilities are welcome in fast-growing communities. But are hospital funding pledges in election campaigns based on health-care or political needs?
The silence of the ballot box: ignoring Gaza could cost Labor seats - New Politics
In an era where the personal is political and the global is local, foreign policy silence and trying to appease one group over another, might not be a safe political strategy anymore.
The recent killings in Gaza of 15 medics and rescue workers by the Israel Defense Forces was one of the most horrifying developments that we’ve seen, in a spate of massacres that has long crossed the boundaries of legality, morality, and humanity. All available evidence doesn’t suggest accidental crossfire or collateral damage, but targeted killings – executions in the service of a slow, methodical ethnic cleansing campaign by the state of Israel. It is a campaign which has, over the past two months, claimed the lives of women, children, aid workers, journalists, and civilians of all types.
Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Rizzinformation - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny
Political communications expert Andrea Carson joins Democracy Sausage to discuss social media, misinformation and disinformation and what ideas, if any, are actually landing with a disengaged electorate. Which campaign messages are cutting through in both traditional and social media? Are mis- and disinformation seducing the electorate any more than in the past? And are we now seeing social media impact not only how campaigns are run, but also how policy is designed? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Professor Andrea Carson joins Professor Mark Kenny and Dr Marija Taflaga to discuss the ‘subterranean’ election campaign – the crackpot memes, AI videos and Gen Z-courting content that could shape votes and policy.
Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast
Also >
Rebecca Huntley on the threat to democracy of isolation and distrust – Full Story podcast
This election, disinformation is swirling on Chinese social media. Here’s how it spreads - The Conversation
Ross Gittins: Memo Dutton: Good economic managers don’t try to panic the punters - Pearls and Irritations
A problem in economics is that you can’t use the economy to experiment.
But as economists realised some years ago, sometimes the economy presents you with circumstances that constitute a “natural experiment”. This happened last week, and Peter Dutton flunked the test.
In the days immediately after Mad King Donald’s big tariffs announcement on “Ruination Day”, sharemarkets were crashing, people were feeling panicky and no one was sure what it meant or where it would lead, except that it sounded very, very bad.
As usual, the media wasn’t helping.
Read more from Ross Gittins for Pearls and Irritations
Also > Clear and Present Danger - Truth, Lies and Media Podcast
The Coalition makes the case for negative gearing reform - Inside Story
Peter Dutton’s housing announcement exposes the inconsistency in the opposition’s thinking.
At the Coalition’s campaign launch on Sunday, Peter Dutton pulled a rabbit out of his otherwise empty housing policy hat by promising to let first home buyers deduct mortgage interest from their income tax.
In essence, this would extend negative gearing from property investors to new homeowners.
Dutton’s pledge flies in the face of countless declarations — from both sides of politics — that the primary cause of Australia’s housing woes is a lack of supply, and the only solution is to build more homes.
Also read >
Struggling renters are all but invisible this election - Crikey (paywall)
Homelessness – the other housing crisis politicians aren’t talking about - The Conversation
Liberal’s Mundine joins Price spruiking “MAGA” - The Klaxon
Senator Jacinta Price’s co-front as the face of the anti-Indigenous Voice campaign — senior Liberal Party figure Warren Mundine — has also appeared publicly spruiking “Make Australia Great Again”.
Just weeks ago, taking the stage where “far-right” operative Steve Bannon had thrown a Nazi-style salute — and Elon Musk had brandished a chainsaw — Mundine lavished praise on Donald Trump.
The senior Liberal Party figure declared he would “Make Australia Great Again!” before donning a cap with the slogan.
“It has been brilliant to see Donald Trump come back and help us in this resurgence,” Mundine told the audience of the US CPAC event on February 21.
“We’re so proud to be here.
Read more Anthony Klan from The Klaxon
Cam Wilson: Two sexual assault accusers say right-wing group Advance ‘weaponised’ their claims without their consent - Crikey
Advance refused to take down anti-Greens ads quoting sexual assault accusers after being told they didn’t consent to the use of their claims.
Sexual assault accusers who complained about how the Greens handled their claims say Liberal-backed activist group Advance used their stories without their consent in a well-funded attack campaign against the party.
As part of Advance’s broader attack against the Greens in the lead-up to the federal election, the right-wing group has run a micro-targeted “Her Truth” campaign that uses progressive-sounding language to call for people to “stand with the women that have been silenced by the Greens”.
Read more from Cam Wilson from Crikey (paywall)
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!
See a list of the 38 community independents - who have (so far) announced their candidacy in the upcoming federal election. Subscribe, volunteer, donate to support their campaigns.
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Quick Links…
Safe seat syndrome? Why some hospitals get upgrades and others miss out - The Conversation
Breaking The Duopoly: Can Independents Change the Game? - Punters Politics Podcast
Coalition axing Labor’s free Tafe would mean fewer builders and higher house prices, experts warn - The Guardian
When elephants clash: The strategic logic behind Trump’s tariffs and China’s response - Pearls and Irritations
More bulk billing is fine. But what the health system really needs this election is genuine reform - The Conversation
Muslim advocacy group to preference Greens above Labor in some seats despite disagreement on religious freedom - The Guardian
Kos’s Mid-Election Pulse - Curtin’s Cast Podcast
Don’t mention the C-word (covid): The iron law binding politicians and journalists this election - Crikey (paywall)
Keith Windschuttle’s rotten legacy - Overland Journal
Sea Ice is Melting Faster Than We Thought - And Yes, it’s a Big Deal for Australia! - Lyrebird Dreaming
The role of preferences in the two-party race - The Tally Room
We compared the Labor and Coalition’s income tax proposals to see who benefits most - The Conversation
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Share your views on Australia’s media landscape through TrueNorth’s short survey
You’re up to date for Wednesday the 16th of April. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - Amy Remeikis for The Australia Institute here - and through 6 News here
Join the new Boiling Point community - where we’re growing a group of politically informed Australians in the lead up to the 2025 federal election. See details and sign up here.
Discover independent news media. See the clear difference.
