News update for Wed 17 July 2024
Your trusted guide to the top independent news and views of the day...
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 today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
BREAKING NEWS: Screaming, freezing, struggling to breathe: confronting Queensland watch house footage exposes anguish of children locked in isolation cells - The Guardian
Israel lobby’s attack on Kostakidis threatens everyone’s right to free speech - Pearls and Irritations
Mary Kostakidis is one of Australia’s finest journalists, but more than that, she also resolutely stands against oppression and injustice.
I witnessed this first hand when I worked alongside Mary in the Australian Assange campaign. But now she finds herself on the receiving end of an extensive complaint by Alon Cassuto, the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, a renowned member of the powerful Israel lobby group in this country, over tweets and retweets Ms. Kostakidis has made since October 7.
Read more from Greg Barns in Pearls and Irritations
Also >
Not in My Name: Antony Lowenstein - One of the leading Jewish voices supporting Gaza - Al Jazeera
Australian surgeon returns home from Gaza describing 'unfathomable' conditions - The ABC
Inside the renewable energy resistance in regional Australia - The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Hosting renewable projects, such as wind and solar farms, is an opportunity for many farmers to earn a stable income during the ongoing climate crisis. But in community meetings across regional Australia, there’s a ‘noisy minority’ who are mobilising a growing resistance to the renewables transition.
Listen to The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Also read > Bowen hints at even larger auctions after huge response to Australia’s biggest wind and solar tender - Renew Economy
Michael Pascoe: NACC finds billion-dollar corruption too hard - The New Daily
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has given its tick of approval for multibillion-dollar federal corruption – the sort of corruption that NSW’s ICAC has had the backbone to confront, but the NACC does not.
If you thought the NACC deciding not to investigate Robodebt was, um, “disappointing”, the NACC walking away from the Coalition’s blatant corruption of massive grant schemes is another whole level of failure.
Read more from Michael Pascoe for The New Daily
John Setka, the CFMEU and the fine art of capturing a state government - Crikey
The CFMEU’s relationship with the Victorian government is another example of state capture, one to which state Labor governments are especially susceptible.
While the CFMEU’s role as the top donor to Labor in Victoria and elsewhere fits the pattern of other examples of state capture — the access purchased by political donations is a standard tool used by industries like fossil fuels or gambling, or the big four consulting firms — the union is an example of a much rarer form.
As an influential organisation within the governing party itself, the CFMEU wielded power greater than that available to mere donors to Victorian Labor.
Read more from Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Also listen to > The criminal allegations facing one of Australia’s biggest unions - The Daily Aus Podcast
Trump shooting is a warning about how toxic language leads to violence - The Conversation
In the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt against Donald Trump during a campaign rally, conspiracies have filled the vacuum left by a lack of information.
At this point, there is little understanding of the shooter’s motives and it would be irresponsible to rush to judgement. There is evidence the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had given $15 when he was 17 to a group that raises funds for Democratic party causes. When he turned 18 he registered as a Republican.
Reports from classmates said he had outspoken conservative views. According to the FBI, there was no evidence of violent rhetoric on his social media accounts, and they are still trying to work out the shooter’s motive.In the immediate aftermath of an assassination attempt against Donald Trump during a campaign rally, conspiracies have filled the vacuum left by a lack of information.
Matters of political survival - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny
Bruce Wolpe joins us to discuss the Trump assassination attempt, questions about Biden’s leadership and the state of democracy. How will this weekend’s assassination attempt on Trump impact his popularity? Is it game over? With four weeks until the Democratic convention, who do party insiders think is best posed to stop Trump returning to the office, and is it still Biden? And what does this all mean for the health of democracy worldwide?
Listen to Mark Kenny for the Democracy Sausage Podcast
Also read >
Paul Bongiorno: Australia is not immune after Trump shooting - The New Daily
Donald Trump Is Not The Problem - Elaine Stead
Today’s cartoon by Matt Golding
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
A sovereign citizen group is using a fake court to justify child kidnapping and extortion - ABC News
The logo on the official-looking letter was unfamiliar, but even before opening it, Scott Murrin knew who it came from.
Beneath a motto that read "do no harm", the "warrant" demanded he surrender his two sons to "court sheriffs" and submit himself for arrest.
A failure to comply, it read, would result in life imprisonment with "hard labour".
The document was sent to Mr Murrin in March by a group calling itself Nmdaka Dalai Australis (NDA), a radical anti-government organisation that is aligned with the sovereign citizen movement.
Sovereign citizens oppose the government, viewing it as illegitimate and having no authority over them.
How to Make a Dictator: A Conversation with Strongman Expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat - The PoliticsGirl Podcast
Authoritarian propaganda is full of empty promises of unity. Of uniting the nation under a leader who alone can fix it. Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat and I had this conversation BEFORE the events at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, but the facts remain the same if not more poignant now. The shock and awe we’re seeing is a tactic to distract us from what this party plans to do to our country, our democracy, and to anyone who doesn’t pledge absolute fealty or fit into their limited box of “acceptable” Americans. What happened at the Trump rally changes nothing about who Trump is or what he will do to this country if he and his party gain power. If anything, Ruth’s warnings of how a strongman comes to power, are more dire now. We are witnessing the playbook of authoritarianism unfold, we can not simply go along
Listen to the PoliticsGirl Podcast
Also read > ‘Turning down the temperature’ shouldn’t mean silencing all criticism of Trump - Margaret Sullivan for The Guardian
Religion in politics: should we be wary or accept its influence? - New Politics
The emergence of the Muslim Vote group in Australia signifies a new dynamic in the political landscape. Unlike a traditional political party, this group focuses on educating and mobilising voters on specific issues, particularly those related to events and international injustice in Palestine. By supporting independent candidates in Labor-held seats in Western Sydney and Melbourne, the Muslim Vote mirrors the strategy of Climate 200, which successfully supported independents in Liberal-held seats during the 2019 and 2022 federal elections. However, the Muslim Vote has sparked significant backlash from the mainstream media and establishment politics, with sensationalist claims about the impending imposition of Sharia law and dire warnings about Australia’s future.
Also read >
Albo’s envoys will entrench religious and political divisions for generations - Pearls and Irritations
Labor ‘clearly afraid’ of backlash after taking Islamic community for granted, Muslim Votes Matter says - The Guardian
Speaker and Labor MP Milton Dick to appear alongside controversial Pentecostal preachers - The New Daily
Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide confronts lawfare, cronyism and a bureaucratic nightmare - Michael West Media
The Royal Commission has found three veteran deaths by suicide every fortnight, yet Stuart McCarthy says the situation with the Department of Veteran Affairs remains toxic with a ‘lawfare’ campaign against vulnerable veterans and their families.
MWM‘s investigation into corruption allegations aired in a Senate Estimates hearing two weeks ago reveals additional layers of a “toxic” veterans’ affairs bureaucracy, which has defied not one but two Royal Commissions.
At the heart of the controversy lies a long-running campaign of taxpayer-funded ‘lawfare’ against vulnerable military veterans, families and widows.
Read more in Michael West Media
Also read > Defence still rewarding Thales and Israeli firm that supplied arms used in Frankcom murder - Crikey (paywall)
Aged care homes accused of ‘short-changing’ Australians as nearly two-thirds fail to meet care-minute targets - The Guardian
Aged care homes should not be “short-changing” older people by making profits off government funding while falling short of mandatory care targets, advocates say, as pressure grows on the federal government to introduce the new Aged Care Act to parliament after repeated delays.
Recent analysis from the Ageing Research Collaborative at the University of Technology Sydney found nearly two-thirds of homes that turned a profit in the first half of the 2023-2024 financial year did not meet mandatory care-minute targets, despite substantial government funding.
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 BUY!
Quick Links…
Newspapers are still on the extinction timeline - of course - Tim Burrowes for Unmade
Two Politicians Walk Into a Pub, Which One Do You Trust? - Punters Politics Podcast
Hawkesbury Mayor and partner in double AVO - The Klaxon
How to make Australia’s FOI system less secretive - Crikey (paywall)
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian 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 17th of July. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here