News update for Wed 19 Feb 2025

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

Feb 19, 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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TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here

NACC forced to investigate over Robodebt - The Klaxon

The deeply embattled National Anti-Corruption Commission will be forced to investigate over the $1.7 billion Robodebt scandal, after an external former judge overturned its earlier refusal.

In a statement today the NACC said it “will investigate” the six former senior public officials referred to it, for civil and criminal action, by the Robodebt Royal Commission in 2023.

The result is highly damning for the NACC’s top brass, including Commissioner Paul Brereton and its three “Deputy Commissioners”, who shocked the nation last June when they announced the NACC would not investigate.

The Commissioners provided a handful of vague reasons for not investigating, all of which were heavily criticised by top experts.

Also read >

Nicki Hutley: RBA reduces interest rates, but don’t hold your breath for too much more this year - The Guardian

The path of the economy and inflation in the year ahead will dictate the timing of any future cuts to interest rates.

Mortgage holders across Australia breathed a collective sigh of relief this afternoon as the Reserve Bank of Australia finally announced a long-awaited interest rate cut, taking the official cash rate from 4.35% to 4.1%. According to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, the four major banks have been quick to confirm that they will pass on the “full benefits” of the decision.

Such a tiny cut might not feel like much to those saddled with large debt.

Also >

As expected, the RBA cut its cash rate – but played down the prospects for a series of follow-up moves - Saul Eslake for Pearls and Irritations
The Reserve Bank has cut rates for the first time in four years. But it is cautious about future cuts - The Conversation
Can the government claim a win from the RBA cut? - 7am Podcast
RBA is still in denial. But at least it sees Trump for what he is - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
As an election looms, will Australians remember Labor for one rate cut or the 12 hikes before that? - Josh Butler for The Guardian
Finally a rate cut but did the RBA Review cost Labor the election? - Michael Pascoe for Michael West Media

Who pays for our politics and what do they want? - Full Story Podcast

Laws on political donations, often seen as the murky underbelly of politics, are getting a rewrite. Labor – with the help of the Coalition – has brought in new legislation but some of the changes have infuriated the crossbench. Reged Ahmad speaks to former judge and now chair of the Centre for Public Integrity Anthony Whealy on what we know about those who donate to political campaigns and whether the new laws could lock out independents.

Listen to The Full Story Podcast

Also >

When does bipartisanship happen? When mutual self-interest is served - Ross Gittins for The SMH/Age
‘Hypocrisy and shallowness’: the $110,000 ticket to Australian politicians ahead of the election - The Guardian

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Australia prepares for a lonelier, harsher world - The Economist

The country has long relied on America for security and China for its prosperity. Those two pillars are wobbling.

Australians have felt lucky but anxious since the first colonists waded ashore, over two centuries ago. An edge of insecurity endured even as Australia became prosperous, safe and envied: a liberal democracy with a resource-rich continent to itself, guarded by a deep blue moat on the bottom of the world. Today, Australian fears are acute, for two pillars supporting its modern rise—its defence alliance with America and its trade with China—are wobbling. For all that, after a week Down Under talking to business, political and national security bigwigs, The Telegram has a hunch that Australian angst gives the country a head start.

Peter Dutton’s nuclear accounting trick #1: Assume you can halve the cost of nuclear power - Renew Economy

These four accounting tricks act to mislead voters that the Liberal-National Party could lower energy bills through a shift to nuclear when in reality it is likely to increase power bills.

This article focuses on accounting trick one of four: Assume a cost for nuclear reactors which is around half what nuclear reactors have actually cost to build across Europe and North America.

If the Coalition under Dutton isn’t liberal or conservative, what is it? - Pearls and Irritations

Ill winds are blowing in from the United States of America. In the times ahead we will be tested in Australia, across the spectrum, as to whether we adopt a similar approach to our politics.

The early signs aren’t good. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has tailored Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” to the more palatable “Get Australia Back on Track”. He has congratulated Trump on his “out of the box” thinking on Gaza, despite the International Court of Justice warning of a plausible genocide and most of the international community speaking out against an idea of ethnic cleansing spruiked by a would-be property developer.

George Monbiot: There are many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse. Here’s how to survive if that happens - The Guardian

It could be wildfires, a pandemic or a financial crisis. The super-rich will flee to their bunkers – the rest of us will have to fend for ourselves

Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk could trigger a series of converging and compounding crises, leading to social, financial and industrial failure.

There are several possible mechanisms. Let’s start with an obvious one: their assault on financial regulation.

Also read >

How Musk is cancelling the U.S. government - Robert Reich
Europeans (and others) vs Trump - Pearls and Irritations
Trump’s view of the world is becoming clear: America’s interests matter more than any set of rules - The Conversation
And here we are - Not with a bang but a wimp (sic) - Tim Dunlop
The Fragile Web: Power, Systems, and the Fight for Our Collective Future - Sue Barrett
When Right is wrong. Fighting the good fight - The Politics

Betoota Talks: The 31st Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese MP - Betoota Talks Podcast

The PM joins Betoota Talks this week to talk about his experiences, hurdles and future plans in the top job. With an election around the corner, The Betoota Advocate poses the question to him: What have you done differently to Scott Morrison? He answers that and more. This interview also includes a lot of chat about the South Sydney Rabbitohs, but do not let that deter you!

Listen to The Betoota Talks Podcast

Civics education is at an all-time low in Australia. Mapping our ‘civic journeys’ may help - The Conversation

Although Australia has a strong and proud democracy, it nonetheless faces important challenges.

Among these, youth democratic engagement and civics education have been matters of national concern for more than two decades.

With the latest national curriculum testing showing the lowest levels of civics on record, and a parliamentary inquiry finding that civics education is not working in Australia, it is timely to ask why, after so much attention over so many years, so little has changed.

‘1800s-era accommodation’: Ageing infrastructure in Australia’s prison system - The Justice Map

Prison inspectors around the country have sounded the alarm over health and safety issues associated with ageing infrastructure in the system, with some buildings being more than 130 years old.

People across Australia are being incarcerated in facilities dating back more than 100 years that fall well short of modern standards.

Multiple recent reports by prison inspectors across Australia have raised major concerns over the state of ageing infrastructure in the country’s prison system, and the impact this is having on those incarcerated in them.

Why does Australia keep failing to Close the Gap? - New Politics

The dream is that one day, the public will see Indigenous wellbeing not as a niche cause or a tokenistic gesture, but as a matter of national responsibility and collective benefit.

The Closing the Gap report continues to expose the disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, yet it hasn’t generated the urgent, comprehensive action that’s required to address them. Since the first report was tabled in 2008, governments of all persuasions have presented variations of pretty much the same report year after year, but have failed to deliver even the minimal shifts required to make substantial changes.

It won’t stop at Ukraine. In a world gone MAGA, Australia needs a new defence strategy - Crikey

Donald Trump has changed the world. Those charged with defending Australia needs to accept this.

Australian politicians struggling to not upset the Trump administration by refusing to endorse its proposal for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was only the beginning. There’s only faux bipartisanship on a two-state solution; many in the Coalition are deeply hostile to Palestinians. But on an issue of real bipartisanship — the need to help Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invasion — Donald Trump presents a far greater challenge. The US president wants to appease Putin by handing him Ukrainian territory, exclude…

Also read > Dispensing with the US-centric financial system - John Quiggin

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