News update for Wed 9 July 2025

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

Jul 09, 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

Michael Pascoe: Reserve Bank board still looking for yesterday’s news - Michael West Media

In deciding to hold off on another interest rate cut, the Reserve Bank’s board appears to be waiting to find out what the past was like.

I don’t know where to begin with six of the nine RBA board members, the ones who want to wait for another meeting so they can consider what the Bureau of Stats (ABS) will tell them was happening some three months ago. They have no grasp of the present, so forget about the future.

The same six have no faith in the RBA’s own forecasts. Hilariously, they will only trust the forecasts after they have been proven correct. That’s a key part of why they didn’t cut rates again yesterday – they want the bank’s forecasts to be confirmed by the ABS when it hands them the story of the past, the June quarter CPI due to be published on July 30.

Also read >

Three-time losers: In its worst decision in years, Reserve Bank ideologues vote to keep punishing households - Bernard Keane for Crikey (paywall)
The RBA’s decision to hold rates isn’t a calamity, but its shift in language is confounding – and worrying - Nicki Hutley for The Guardian
RBA deputy warns of Brexit-scale impact as Trump threatens 200% tariffs on foreign pharmaceuticals - The Guardian

The pendulum swing - Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny

The numbers are in. Pollster Shaun Ratcliff joins Democracy Sausage to dissect the latest election data and what it means for the future of #auspol. What do the numbers tell us about when the shift to Labor started? What does the fall off in the primary vote tell us about the future of our politics? And what’s behind young voters moving away from major parties? On this episode of Democracy Sausage, Dr Shaun Ratcliff joins Professor Mark Kenny and Marija Taflaga to go over what the latest election data tells us about the state of our democracy.

Listen to the Democracy Sausage Podcast with Mark Kenny

Also > The Price of Democracy: How Money Shapes Elections Around the World - Georgia Cooper for Thought Bubble

Murray Watt ramps up lobbying efforts in last-minute push to get Murujuga rock art on world heritage list - The Guardian

Exclusive: Environment minister hosts ambassadors before Paris meeting, aiming to convince at least one member to move decisive amendment.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, hosted more than a dozen ambassadors from countries on the world heritage committee on Monday as he ramped up lobbying efforts to get the Murujuga rock art complex inscribed on the world heritage list.

Unesco advisers recommended in May that the nomination be blocked and referred back to Australia until nearby “degrading acidic emissions”, including those from a Woodside gas plant, were stopped.

False binaries and alternative realities (to justify atrocity) - The Shot

Just as the press clearly has forgotten its role to tell the truth, political leaders have forgotten to govern for all in society. In the obsessive language focused primarily on antisemitism, Allan and Karvelas are wrong about secular Australians being hateful, and they are hiding the extent that they are ideologically, economically and morally captured by Israel. It isn’t the public that has been targeted by powerful, rich lobby groups, chambers of commerce, and friendship societies. It isn’t the average people that get jobs with Zionist West Bank settler benefactor Anthony Pratt like former Premier Daniel Andrews. Not many of the punters have an open-door policy with powerful Zionist lobby groups, and it isn’t the protesters taking expenses-paid junkets to Israel and rolling around in the mud of the Red Sea. It isn’t impressing Australians that these ghouls think they can turn their back on us, on our opposition to the human crime of the century.

Also >

Landmark court rulings reveal limits of pro-Israel lobby - DeepCut
The Age’s framing of Melbourne synagogue attack + What is an ‘activist journalist’? - We Used to be Journos Podcast
Freedom of speech and chants - Greg Barns for Pearls and Irritations
Israel, Gaza and the definition of genocide - The Rest is Politics Podcast
Twice the Dead, Half the Truth - The humanitarian cost in Gaza is far higher than we’ve been told - Lyrebird Dreaming
Victoria’s draconian new anti-protest laws will have a chilling effect on free speech — and won’t keep anyone safe - Sarah Schwartz for Crikey (paywall)

What To Do About the Tinpot Dictator - Robert Reich

Never before in American history, not even in wartime, has one man exercised such unbridled discretion affecting the lives of so many of us, while simultaneously preventing others — Congress, the courts, the American people — from having a say or even knowing what he’s going to do next.

Yesterday he sent ICE agents and National Guard troops into Los Angeles, over the objections of the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles. He is also sending 200 Marines to Florida to aid ICE.

Where will he next direct ICE, National Guard, and active duty military? He isn’t saying. But it’s our country.

Australian childcare – do you reap what you sow? - Pearls and Irritations

The present crisis in the childcare industry in Australia has been in the making for the past 50 years.

Since the 1972 childcare act, successive governments have emphasised the raison d’être for childcare services as support for workforce participation. Such a view has created a system where huge government subsidies have been poured into a growing private sector, many ASX-listed, while parents pay ever greater fees as gap fees. Guarantees for pre-school hours in recent years, to start in 2026, will depend on new not-for-profit centres being built and increased geographic access.

The problems with early childhood services are myriad and historic.

How Kumanjayi Walker’s death should change the NT Police - 7am Podcast

In the Central Australian community of Yuendumu, Kumanjayi Walker’s family gathered this week to hear coroner Elizabeth Armitage share her findings into his death. Walker was a 19 year old Warlpiri-Luritja teenager who was shot and killed by former constable Zachary Rolfe in 2019. Today, investigative journalist Kate Wild on what the inquest revealed about the racist culture of the Northern Territory police, how it enabled Zachary Rolfe to act with impunity – and whether institutional change is possible. Kate Wild’s book about the life and death of Kumanjayi Walker is called The Red House.

Listen to the 7am Podcast

Also >

Kumanjayi Walker inquest findings will bring ‘lasting reform’ to NT police, says anti-racism officer - The Guardian
The NT police racism findings - The Daily Aus Podcast
How do coronial inquests work? Here’s what they can and can’t do - The Conversation

Trump’s AUKUS review coming soon. Will he stop the folly? - Michael West Media

It’s almost a month since the US announced a 30-day review to determine whether AUKUS fits within its ‘America First’ agenda. Rex Patrick looks at what might happen.

Putting Donald Trump’s flawed obsession with tariffs to one side, and his crude diplomacy, there’s some logic and strategy in his geopolitical manoeuvring.

Trump wound back American support for Ukraine and then insisted that other NATO countries take greater responsibility for European security. NATO countries have now agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

Also read > Richard Marles’ chief of staff disclosed long-term relationship with lobbyist from firm with defence clients - The Guardian

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Leaked teen social media ban tech trial results don't support claims - Crikey

Australia’s age-assurance technology trial released ‘preliminary findings’ that the tech was ready to go. Now experts have seen the underlying data, they’re not sure that’s right.

When the people running Australia’s teen social media tech trial claimed their testing proved the technology can work effectively, the trial’s experts wondered why they hadn’t seen the proof.

After being underway for the better part of a year, the government-commissioned Age Assurance Technology Trial last month published a list of 12 conclusions. It had broad statements such as “age assurance can be done in Australia and can be private, robust and effective”, but did not include evidence backing them up.

Eight reasons why our energy transition needs community - Renew Economy

Our shift to renewable energy is not just from fossil fuels to wind and solar. Increasingly, our energy production is going local – into communities, homes and businesses. Our energy consumption has always been local but now is challenged to be smart, flexible and variable.

With such momentous technology realignments, it’s easy to forget that people are involved. We must expect that our energy transition will change us culturally and change how we organise ourselves. Not trivial impacts.

Community offers a social “glue” that will help us do this well. Community energy groups across the country have been championing a better energy system for over 20 years. In fact, “community” keeps showing up as the answer to everything – from electrification to resilience. But not in the mainstream narrative, which continues to focus almost exclusively on customers and energy providers.