The Australian political landscape was shaken on Tuesday as the National Party announced it would not re-enter a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party, effectively ending the long-standing Coalition. Opposition leader Sussan Ley attributed the split to disagreements over policy alignment and restrictions on frontbenchers speaking out against opposition policy. Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the breakup as a 'nuclear meltdown', while the Queensland LNP insisted the federal split would not affect state government operations.
In a separate development, Australia joined 22 other nations, including the UK, Canada, and Germany, in urging Israel to allow unimpeded aid access to Gaza. The joint statement called for UN and humanitarian organisations to operate independently to save lives and reduce suffering. Meanwhile, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi criticised the Labor government for not joining the UK, Canada, and France in threatening concrete responses to Israel's expansion of its war in Gaza.
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.85%, citing easing inflation. However, the day's most immediate disruption was a major transport outage in Sydney, where a train accident involving collapsed high-voltage wires at Strathfield halted services and caused gridlocked roads. Passengers were freed from stranded trains, but commuter chaos persisted throughout the evening.
In legal news, former judge Walter Sofronoff KC faced a federal court hearing over a bid to overturn findings of serious corrupt conduct by the ACT Integrity Commission. The commission found that Sofronoff, who chaired an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann, had leaked an advance copy of his final report to journalist Janet Albrechtsen. The ACT speaker argued that the corruption report is protected by parliamentary privilege, a claim Sofronoff's legal team contested.
