News update for Wed 21 Feb 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 selected articles from Australia’s independent news media sector.
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Scroll down for today’s news and views…
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
A missing $80 million to keep asylum seekers in limbo - 7am Podcast
After asylum seekers arrived by boat in Western Australia last week and were sent to Nauru, old debates about offshore immigration detention have been reanimated. It comes as the government has admitted they aren’t able to account for $80 million paid to Papua New Guinea for the welfare and support of people formerly held in offshore detention. So, how did millions of taxpayer dollars disappear?
Labor’s regional and rural housing blind spot - Pearls & Irritations
The Labor government has a blind spot when it comes to fixing the unique challenges of housing in regional Australia. The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund—the government’s signature housing policy—has completely ignored the specific problems in regional, rural and remote Australia and failed to guarantee dedicated funding. Regional Australians, who feel they will never have a stable place to live, deserve more.
Read more from Indi Independent MP, Helen Haines for Pearls & Irritations
‘The river has been destroyed’: expert says agriculture has overshadowed science in the Murray-Darling Basin - The Guardian
An ecologist who spent 36 years with NSW Fisheries says scientists working for the government are ‘aghast’ at the state of the Darling River but can’t speak publicly
Subs, frigates and other vessels. Don’t drink the minister’s navy shipbuilding Koolaid - Michael West Media
Defence Minister Richard Marles is hoping yesterday’s announcement about the restructuring of the Royal Australian Navy will keep us all feeling happy and safe.
On 16 September 2021 then Prime Minister Scott “from marketing” Morrison used his AUKUS announcement to bury the fact he was cancelling the troubled Attack Class submarine program – years wasted and $3B shredded. Today Defence Minister Richard Marles used the thrill of new purchases to bury the fact that Navy procurement is still an utter shambles.
Israel, Gaza and the crisis in the Middle East - Democracy Sausage
Middle East expert Ian Parmeter joins Mark Kenny to explain what is going on in Gaza – including the context for the current conflict and where to next?
Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast
It’s time for Australia to break out of its timidity says Paul Keating - AFR
In a wide-ranging interview, Paul Keating draws together a critique of Australia and its place in the world from his 55 years of public life since he first entered federal parliament in 1969.
Former prime minister and treasurer Paul Keating has used his 80th birthday to urge Australians and their political leaders to break out of a “timidity” in the nation’s intellectual structure, its economic and business aspirations, its constitutional links with Britain, its security dependence on the United States and its failure to reconcile with its original inhabitants.
Read more in The AFR (paywalled)
Cartoon by Mark David for Independent Australia
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
Michael Pascoe: Yes, RBA rate decisions are third-rate – but that’s by design - The New Daily
Jim Chalmers’ quite pedestrian review rearranging the Martin Place furniture contained one sharp bit: Tightening the RBA’s focus on getting inflation down to 2.5 per cent, not just between 2 and 3 per cent. And that’s to be done purely by bashing people with interest rates.
Read more from Michael Pascoe for The New Daily
The public wants clean energy – but this is Australia, where the climate wars never die - The Guardian
Despite the views of the public, much of the political & media debate continues to frame the climate crisis as a sideshow in which saying you’re committed to addressing the problem is OK, but introducing policies to back that up is treated with significantly more suspicion than doing nothing. There remains an implicit message that still we don’t need to change.The lead proponent of this view is the federal Coalition.
Read more from Adam Morton for The Guardian
Why fixing negative gearing would be a positive - SMH
Life wasn’t meant to be easy for our politicians – which is as it should be. Poor old Anthony Albanese. No sooner has he got away with breaking his promise on the stage 3 tax cuts than he’s besieged by people demanding more tax reform.Trouble is, they all want different things, and every one of them could cost him votes as fat cats who stand to lose some tax break join forces with the opposition to run a great scare campaign, claiming it’s ordinary voters who’d be hit.
Read more from Ross Gittens for The SMH
Some carmakers are still in the slow lane on EVs. Australian consumers deserve better - The Guardian
Australian consumers are right to be confused as the global car industry is at odds with itself this week in the wake of the new vehicle efficiency standard (NVES) proposed by the federal government.
Australia has not updated its standards since 2009 and this one will bring Australia into line with 85% of the rest of the world.
War, what is it good for? - The Politics
It is unclear why we would want to involve ourselves in yet another potential US misadventure. The cost of millions of lives and trillions of dollars in Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan and the Middle East – all a result of American intervention – have done little to make the world a safer place. At the end of the day, our decisions to involve ourselves in conflicts where we are not needed comes down to base politics at best.
Read more from Daniel James for The Politics
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Politics with Michelle Grattan: Antony Green, Kos Samaras and Tim Costello on Dunkley contest - The Conversation
Can we be inoculated against climate misinformation? Yes – if we prebunk rather than debunk - The Conversation
Permanent and long-term immigration movements continue at high levels - Pearls & Irritations
The secretive R&D tax scheme handing millions to gas companies - The New Daily
Factcheck: is Dutton right in claiming Labor cut $600m from border enforcement? - The Guardian
Collateral Damage - Yang Hengjun - Inside Story
In Western Australia, it’s too damn hot, I tellsya! I’m going troppo! - Crikey
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here
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You’re up to date for Wednesday 21th February. See you tomorrow!
TODAY’S BREAKING NEWS: See all the breaking news of the day through The Guardian here