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| | | | 16/04/2025 Coalition’s blackout ‘opportunity’, SA’s big dry, Trump toys with deporting US citizens |
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| | | | | Subscribe to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 for a daily wrap of the big developments from the campaign trail. Sign up here.
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| Martin Farrer |  |
| | | Morning everyone. Energy is one of the big issues this election and we have the story of a Coalition MP who reckons there is a “big political opportunity” to be made from power outages. We’re also reporting from South Australia on the state’s record-breaking drought; Barack Obama joins Harvard in its fight against the Trump administration; and how Jacob Elordi needed a boot camp to portray Richard Flanagan’s brooding hero Dorrigo Evans. |
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Australia | |
| ‘I’m giving up”’ | Cate Blanchett, the double Oscar-winning star, says she is retiring from acting because she has “other things” to do with her life. | ‘Do nothing’ | Coalition MP Colin Boyce told a group of climate science deniers that blackouts were “a big political opportunity” and that he had urged fellow MPs to adopt a “do-nothing strategy” under which voters would “start to realise” the alleged problem. Separately, international analysts say today that Peter Dutton’s plan to build less renewable energy and keep Australia’s coal plants running longer could lead to electricity shortages. Anthony Albanese will face off tonight against Dutton in the second leaders debate – but will it have any impact on voters? | Diet plan | Simple dietary changes such as swapping out red meat for chicken or plant-based alternatives and cutting creamy pasta sauces could substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions, Australian research has found. | Exclusive | The Greens MP Stephen Bates has joined OnlyFans – a first for an Australian politician – as the party pushes to make two HIV prevention drugs, PrEP and PEP, free. | Muslim preference | A Muslim advocacy group is planning to tell voters to preference the Greens above Labor on how-to-vote cards in several key seats, despite objecting to the minor party’s position on religious freedom in schools. |
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Full Story | |
| Rebecca Huntley on the threat to democracy of isolation and distrust In a wide-ranging conversation, social researcher Rebecca Huntley speaks to Nour Haydar about how decreasing participation in society and declining interest in the news are changing the country – and reshaping our politics. | | |
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In-depth | |
| Large parts of South Australia have seen the lowest rainfall on record in the 14 months since last February 2024, plunging the natural world into a severe crisis. One expert tells our reporters that the situation is “unprecedented with a mortal threat to plant, animal and insect life. Another says bluntly: “It’s getting hotter and drier … We are going to lose species.” |
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Not the news | |
| Having already tackled the Snowtown murders and the Port Arthur massacre, filmmakers Justin Kurzel and Shaun Grant have turned to the experience of PoWs in the second world war with their TV adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s haunting novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Kelly Burke speaks to them and to the show’s star, Jacob Elordi, about why they made it and the gruelling physical and mental challenge of the cast going to a boot camp to lose weight to convincingly play maltreated soldiers. |
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Sport | |
| Champions League | Aston Villa are attempting to claw back a two-goal deficit against Paris St Germain in their quarter-final second leg, while Dortmund take on Barcelona. | Rugby union | South Africa’s decision to rule out making a bid to host either of the next two World Cups shows how the tournament is beginning to make less sense for governing bodies. | Football | With Ange Postecoglou’s job in the balance, Bournemouth are trying to lock in their coach Andoni Iraola to ward off an approach from Tottenham. |
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What’s happening today | Politics | The second leaders’ debate is on the ABC tonight, hosted by David Speers at 8pm. | Arts | TheGallipoli art prize winner will be announced. |
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Brain teaser | And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. | |
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A message from Lenore Taylor editor of Guardian Australia I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask whether you could support the Guardian’s journalism as we face the unprecedented challenges of covering the second Trump administration.
As the world struggles to process the speed with which Donald Trump is smashing things, here in Australia we wake every morning to more shocking news. Underneath it is always the undermining of ideas and institutions we have long deemed precious and important – like the norms and rules of democracy, global organisations, post-second world war alliances, the definition of what constitutes a dictator, the concept that countries should cooperate for a common global good or the very notion of human decency.
This is a moment the media must rise to, with factual, clear-eyed news and analysis. It’s our job to help readers understand the scale and worldwide ramifications of what is occurring as best we can. The global news-gathering and editorial reach of the Guardian is seeking to do just that.
Here in Australia – as we also cover a federal election - our mission is to go beyond the cheap, political rhetoric and to be lucid and unflinching in our analysis of what it all means. If Trump can so breezily upend the trans-Atlantic alliance, what does that mean for Aukus? If the US is abandoning the idea of soft power, where does that leave the strategic balance in the Pacific? If the world descends back into protectionism, how should a free trading nation like Australia respond?
These are big questions – and the Guardian is in a unique position to take this challenge on. We have no billionaire owner pulling the strings, nor do we exist to enrich shareholders. We are funded by our readers and owned by the Scott Trust, whose sole financial obligation is to preserve our journalistic mission in perpetuity.
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If you can, please consider supporting us with just $1, or better yet, support us every month with a little more. Thank you. | | |
| Lenore Taylor
Editor, Guardian Australia |
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