Australia's political landscape was shaken on Tuesday as the Nationals announced they would not re-enter a coalition agreement with the Liberal party, citing a lack of alignment on key policies. Opposition leader Sussan Ley accused the Nationals of blowing up the Coalition to allow their frontbenchers to speak out against opposition policy. Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the breakup as a 'nuclear meltdown'.
Meanwhile, commuters in Sydney faced severe disruptions after a train accident in Strathfield, where high-voltage wires collapsed onto a train, shutting down a large part of the network. The incident added to the day's chaos, with many facing torturous commutes.
In international news, Australia joined 22 other countries, including the UK, Canada, and Germany, in urging Israel to allow aid into Gaza and enable humanitarian organisations to work independently. The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, criticised the Labor government for not joining the UK, Canada, and France in threatening a concrete response against Israel's expansion of its war on Gaza.
On the economic front, the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.85%, citing that inflation is coming under control.
In legal developments, the Sofronoff inquiry found that ACT's top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, had lost objectivity over the Lehrmann case and knowingly lied about a note of his meeting with broadcaster Lisa Wilkinson. The ACT Integrity Commission found that most of the inquiry's findings were not legally unreasonable, but that Sofronoff's behaviour gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias. Sofronoff is now challenging the corruption watchdog's findings in the Federal court.
