What we learned, Tuesday 29 July
We’ll leave our live coverage of the day’s news there for this evening. Pressure over Palestine dominated our politics blog today – here were the major updates:
Anthony Albanese said it was “beyond comprehension” for Israel to claim there is no starvation crisis in Gaza. Labor minister Tim Ayres said the PM’s rebuke was just a case where “friends communicate”.
Independent senator David Pocock called for more targeted sanctions on the Israeli government “starting with Prime Minister Netanyahu”.
The Greens have called for Australia to dramatically toughen sanctions on Israel, demanding Labor match the measures applied against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The deputy PM, Richard Marles, blamed Coalition ‘chopping and changing’ on submarine plans when asked about Australia’s plan B after the US Navy told Congress that submarine production is around half the level needed for the
The opposition targeted Labor over Medicare and bulk billing rates in question time.
Coalition frontbencher Dan Tehan was kicked out of question time, for calling Labor’s Pat Conroy a “clown”.
And the re-elected Tim Wilson announced he’s in his “truth bomb phase,” blaming Liberals’ lack of vision for election rout in his second first speech to the House of Representatives.
See you tomorrow.
Updated
Tim Wilson has echoed the words of the Liberal party’s founder, Robert Menzies, who once said the modern Liberal movement is “not the conservative party dying hard on the last barricade, but … of a lively mind and a forward-looking heart”.
Wilson has actually used this quote once before. Back in 2017, in the throes of the marriage equality plebiscite, Wilson delivered a speech criticising some MPs, including those within his party, for putting marriage equality to a popular vote – before ending the speech by proposing to his then-partner and now-husband.
But returning to 2025, Wilson was back on the attack – this time criticising his party’s conservative wing and the teal movement that ejected him from parliament back in 2022.
Wilson said:
I don’t wear my faith on my sleeve, but the good book’s insight that ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand’ is truer today than ever before ... I reject the politics that infected too many – from the extremities of the political spectrum and the corporate-funded independents who all share a different vision anchored in the same idea: that we might stand for some, but not all Australians ...
Our party’s founder called these attempts to pit Australians against each other ‘false wars’ ... we are all Australians. And nothing is more corrosive to the Australian promise than people no longer believing sacrifice and effort will get them ahead.
Updated
