News update for Wed 2 Oct 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.
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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
ABC Insiders: a tired old act going nowhere - The Politics
Insiders was established in an era when both Nine and Ten had their own Sunday morning political/media programs. It was intended as a competitor to Nine’s Sunday program where press gallery doyen Laurie Oakes, clipboard on lap, would quietly shred Canberra hypocrisy and double speak and often break some news as a lead in to the week.
But the current spectacle of meaningless journo-politico tangoes, starring ageing Newscorp stars, just doesn’t cut it.
Read more from David Hardaker for The Politics
AUKUS “revenge” against French: Boris Johnson - The Klaxon
The AUKUS security pact — which saw Australia abandon plans to buy French submarines — formed “delicious revenge” against Emmanuel Macron, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly claimed.
London’s The Telegraph newspaper reports that Johnson, in his upcoming memoirs, writes that French President Macron was a “positive nuisance” during Britain’s push to leave the European Union.
“He (Johnson) said he got his revenge by persuading Australia not to buy submarines from the French,” The Telegraph writes.
Read more from Anthony Klan for The Klaxon
Can We Punters ACTUALLY Make A difference? Or Is It All A Scam? - Punters Politics Podcast
Are you one of the cynical punters who's lost all hope in the political system? Or do you still believe that everyday Australians can make a real difference? This episode of the Punters Politics Podcast is diving deep into that very question. We'll be hearing from independent MP Dr. Monique Ryan, who pulled off a stunning upset victory by unseating a top Liberal Party leader. So what can her story teach us about the power of engaged citizens? And are things like letters, phone calls, and petitions actually worth the effort - or are they just a waste of time?
Listen to the Punters Politics Podcast
More than 430,000 Australians could have owned their own home today – if not for 7 prime ministers’ inaction - The New Daily
Negative gearing has become so common – in Australia, one in six taxpayers are landlords and 40% of them negatively gear – that we no longer think of it as weird.
But the treasury is examining it. Since Jim Chalmers became treasurer in 2022, it has been including it in its annual list of anomalies known as tax expenditures. Chalmers says he has sought its advice about it, which he says is “not especially unusual, especially when it comes to contentious issues”.
Axing negative gearing would bring in an extra A$7.7 billion next financial year according to calculations by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Read more Peter Martin for The New Daily
Also read > Who benefits from negative gearing? Hint: probably not you. - Michael West Media
Supermarket pirates: The Coles-Woolworths racket - Pearls and Irritations
There are few economies on the planet more concentrated in terms of vital services and markets than Australia. The players and actors are few and far between, be they in banking, insurance, supermarkets, the media or the aviation market.
Disturbingly, many of these players believe they can operate with richly withering contempt towards those who need their services. The Australian consumer is but prey, their money the spoils for forms of behaviour that verge on the criminal.
Read more from Pearls and Irritations
Also >
Inside the Coles and Woolworths 'fake' discounts case - 7am Podcast
Could supermarket superprofits be fuelling Australia's inflation? - The Guardian’s Full Story Podcast
Today’s cartoon by David Pope for The Canberra Times
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
Victoria Fielding: Media inflating false equivalency between Left and Right - Independent Australia
NEWS REPORTS about the first and likely only U.S. election debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump regularly fell into lazy false equivalency, both-siding the candidates by calling the debate ‘chaotic’, ‘combative’ and ‘heated’. It was not the debate that was chaotic, combative and heated — it was Donald Trump.
This micro example of false equivalency is the same as the macro assessment of the polarised state of Western politics and media, including social media.
Read more from Dr Victoria Fielding for Independent Australia
The ABC’s racism review is scathing. Can Aunty find the strength of character to properly address it? - The Conversation
I am writing this because no one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure.
These words, written by Stan Grant, who at the time was one of the ABC’s most high-profile First Nations journalists, catalysed the ABC into commissioning a review that has now revealed systemic racism across the national broadcaster.
Read more from Denis Muller for The Conversation
Cone of Silence. Government hides gas Cartel’s dirty secrets in Clayton Utz fee-fest - Michael West Media
The Government did not want you to know of its gas betrayal of Australians, so when FOI legal costs shot up eight-fold, they didn’t bat an eyelid. It’s just part of the cost of protecting the cartel.
It was just one document that I was seeking: a departmental options paper for a gas reservation scheme on the east coast of Australia. I wanted it knowing that a gas reservation scheme is a sure-fire way to deflate gas prices and, flowing from that, reduce electricity prices for businesses and consumers.
Read more from Rex Patrick for Michael West Media
Australian police are worried about sovereign citizens and jihadist groups in ‘low sophistication’ attacks - Crikey
Sovereign citizens and radical jihadist groups are behind the increasingly lo-fi, lone wolf-style attacks that make up the biggest terror threat to Australia, according to internal Australian Federal Police (AFP) documents.
The AFP has been raising the alarm about the changing forms of terrorism through public statements, like last year’s inaugural federal crime threat picture, as well as submissions and statements before various parliamentary inquiries and committees.
Read more from Cam Wilson for Crikey (paywall)
Surprises and expectations - Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny
Bruce Wolpe joins us to talk about the US election, October surprises and the strategy and expectations shaping this month on the campaign trail. Can we expect a continuation of the ‘October surprise’ tradition in the US election? How will foreign policy conditions, including rising tensions in the Middle East and ongoing war in Ukraine, influence votes? And which way will the swing states swing?
Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast
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Labor’s 11th-hour decision on LGBTQ+ census questions prompted weekend scramble, documents reveal - The Guardian
Australia’s school system: losing common ground - Pearls and Irritations
‘I pled guilty to journalism’: Assange breaks silence - The New Daily
Getting schooling wrong - Inside Story
Albanese stood beside antisemitism envoy. Journalists weren’t even invited to Islamophobia envoy launch - Crikey (paywall)
The challenge of nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council: Adapt or Die - Pearls and Irritations
New hate symbol law faces its first test - The Daily Aus Podcast
After a spate of recent stabbings, is knife crime getting worse in Australia? - The Conversation
ABC review finds racism within broadcaster and staff targeted by external organisations - The ABC
Fire ant bait opponents face sting of the law as Queensland police called in - The Guardian
How should Australia respond as Israel provokes war? - Pearls and Irritations
Climate change laws appear shelved as WA government draws closer to state election - The ABC
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here
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You’re up to date for Wednesday the 2nd of October. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here - and through 6 News here