What we learned, Tuesday 20 May
Well, it’s been a mammoth day and its reverberations will continue, but we’re going to let you get on with your dinner (and for those of you in Sydney, your torturous commute) and wrap up this blog. Here’s just a little of what we learned today:
The Coalition is no more, after the Nationals announced they will not be re-entering an agreement with the Liberal party, citing lack of alignment on key policies.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the National party blew up the Coalition in part because it wanted its frontbenchers to be allowed to speak out against opposition policy.
The Queensland LNP says the federal Coalition split will have ‘no impact or bearing’ on the state government.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the Coalition’s break up as a “nuclear meltdown”.
Australia issued a joint statement with 22 other countries including the UK, Canada and Germany urging Israel to allow aid into Gaza and to enable “UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity”.
The Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, has condemned 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.
The Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by quarter of a percentage point to 3.85%, saying it believes inflation is coming under control.
And a train accident, in which high-voltage wires collapsed on the top of a train in Strathfield, has caused commuter chaos in Sydney, shutting down a large part of the train network.
Look after yourselves, get home safely, and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.
Updated
Continued from previous post:
The Sofronoff inquiry found the ACT’s top prosecutor, Shane Drumgold, had lost objectivity over the Lehrmann case and had knowingly lied about a note of his meeting with broadcaster Lisa Wilkinson.
The ACT Integrity Commission found that the majority of the Sofronoff inquiry’s findings were not legally unreasonable.
But it found Sofronoff’s behaviour during the inquiry gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias and he might have been influenced by the publicly expressed views of journalist Janet Albrechtsen.
Sofronoff repeatedly messaged the News Corp journalist and eventually leaked her an advance copy of his final report.
That leak led to the Integrity Commission’s “serious corrupt conduct finding” in March.
Justice Abraham reserved her decision on the bid to dismiss Sofranoff’s court challenge.
– AAP
Updated
