News update for Wed 18 June 2025

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

Jun 18, 2025

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

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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

Paul Keating: Australia: A sovereign continent not for Marles to gift away - Pearls and Irritations

Yesterday’s statement by Defence Minister Richard Marles that Australia’s geography and continent would be crucial to any United States prosecution of a war against China will go down as a dark moment in Australia’s history.

A moment when an Australian Labor Government intellectually ceded Australia to the United States as a platform for the US and by implication, Australia, for military engagement against the Chinese state in response to a threat China is alleged to be making.

And ceding the continent to the United States devoid of an electoral authority — a month after an election where the government had the opportunity — but declined to make explicit, its strategic intentions and policies.

Also read >

Albanese should be avoiding Trump like the plague. Why is he (and Australia’s toytown media) chasing him? - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Justice cuts no ICE in Trump’s ‘land of the free’ - Nicole Chvastek for The Politics

Michael Pascoe: George Orwell revisited. Our Government keeps lying to us - Michael West Media

Pandering to the strategic goals of the United States, which puts a target on our nation’s forehead, our Government keeps lying to us. Michael Pascoe with some uncomfortable truths.

First, a little context, a little perspective, before getting to our government blatantly and consistently lying to us:

On January 29, 2002, five months after the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be the “axis of evil”. None of those countries was responsible for 9/11, but the US set about planning to invade Iraq anyway and did so the next year.

If you’re an Australian and the government and the alternative government keep lying to you, I don’t know what you do beyond joining the growing third or so who don’t vote 1 for either of them.

Also read >

Incoming bullshit at 3 o’clock: Marles caught out again on defence spending - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
Australia doesn't need AUKUS - Follow The Money

Permanent unpredictability with Jim Chalmers - Democracy Sausage Podcast

Treasurer Jim Chalmers joins Mark Kenny to talk our changing economic environment, productivity and ‘progressive patriotism’. Amid the unpredictability of the current economic environment, how can Australia benefit from global change? What is the government planning to do to ensure productivity roundtables are actually productive? And how can we meet the challenge of decarbonising our economy?

Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast

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Regime change wouldn’t likely bring democracy to Iran. A more threatening force could fill the vacuum - The Conversation

The timing and targets of Israel’s attacks on Iran tell us that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s short-term goal is to damage Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to severely diminish its weapons program.

But Netanyahu has made clear another goal: he said the war with Iran “could certainly” lead to regime change in the Islamic republic.

These comments came after an Israeli plan to assassinate the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly rebuffed by United States President Donald Trump.

It’s no secret Israel has wanted to see the current government of Iran fall for some time, as have many government officials in the US.

But what would things look like if the government did topple?

Angela Priestley: Can we blame women for avoiding the news? - Womens’ Agenda

The latest analysis of news consumption trends in Australia should leave traditional news businesses reflecting on what they offer women.

One in four Australians (26 per cent) now list social media as their main source of news, overtaking online news websites for the first time (down five points to 23 per cent), according to the Digital News Report released on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Australians are losing trust in the news, with just 43 per cent of Australians saying they trust it.

Furthermore, 69 per cent of Australians say they avoid the news at least some of the time.

There are some clues to what’s going on, especially in the gender differences found: women are less likely than men to trust the news and more likely to avoid it.

Also read > Australia’s teen social media ban is a ‘cursed monkey paw’ problem - Crikey (paywall)

Today’s cartoon by Fiona Katauskas for The Guardian

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

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Police ruled ‘no misconduct’ after officers allegedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar, boom’ near Muslim neighbour - DeepCut

A western Sydney man has vowed to keep pursuing accountability for off-duty NSW police officers who he alleges shouted "Allahu Akbar! Boom!" and "Hezbollah!" following a neighbourhood dispute in December 2024, after an internal police investigation found "no evidence of misconduct".

In complaints to NSW Police, Tarek of Glenmore Park alleged that several off-duty officers made the remarks at a Christmas party last year hosted by his next-door neighbour, who is an officer assigned to Nepean Police Area Command (PAC).

In CCTV footage of Tarek’s backyard provided to Deepcut, voices can be heard chanting "Allahu Akbar!" followed by laughter. One voice shouts "Allahu Akbar! Boom!"

Australia wants to be Maker not a Taker in an AI-driven world - Sandy Plunkett for RealPolitech

the harsh reality is Australia is being left behind relative to most OECD nations and regional neighbours. The new slogan can’t mask the country’s policy, skills and industrial and defence capability gaps, nor make a complacent, government-dependent culture into an entrepreneurial and resilient one.

To have a chance of reversing Australia’s negative momentum requires us to drop the pretence that we can continue as we have.

With all the economic and geopolitical uncertainty, it is clear that in this and the next phase of the 21^st century it is not useful to compartmentalise genuine sovereign technological capability from economic or national security.

Among rich, educated western nations, Australia has been woefully late to that realisation.

Nasa data reveals dramatic rise in intensity of weather events - The Guardian

Extreme events such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, study says.

New data from Nasa has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of weather events such as droughts and floods over the past five years.

The study shows that such extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, with last year’s figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average.

The steepness of the rise was not foreseen. The researchers say they are amazed and alarmed by the latest figures from the watchful eye of Nasa’s Grace satellite, which tracks environmental changes in the planet.

Generational Tectonic Plates - Curtin’s Cast Podcast

In the latest Curtin's Cast Kos Samaras and Nick Dyrenfurth deep dive into the seismic ways Millennials and Gen Z - who collectively make up over 43% of the electorate - are disrupting politics just as the Baby Boomers did post-WWII. Based off exclusive Redbridge polling we look at how the shifting of generational tectonic plates is reshaping the media, advertising and industries such as gambling but is yet to be reflected properly in our democratic institutions and policy settings. There are big lessons for all sides of politics - on the Right but also competition on the left.

Listen to the Curtin’s Cast Podcast

Makeover to takeover: Liberal moderates are desperate to cut loose from Dutton’s legacy - Crikey

Conservatives weren’t happy with the makeup of a new NSW Liberal takeover committee — and couldn’t manage to get support for their preferred candidate, Tony Abbott.

There’s not much NSW Liberals can agree on, but both conservatives and moderates claim they want the same thing: to make sure the party becomes electable again.

Moderates, backed by federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, believe they’ve taken an important step towards doing just that after dumping two Victorian Liberals from the NSW division’s federal takeover committee.