What we learned; Tuesday 7 October
That’s all for today. Thanks for joining. Here’s the day’s main news stories:
Anthony Albanese has offered his condolences to the Jewish community on the second anniversary of the 7 October massacre by Hamas in southern Israel;
Political leaders, including Albanese, condemned pro-Hamas graffiti seen in Melbourne this morning;
Question time was dominated by the Coalition questioning communications minister, Anika Wells, over the government’s handling of the triple zero outage;
The Coalition is “actively considering” a move to end moratorium on nuclear power;
The Coalition can be united, says shadow minister Andrew Bragg, after the resignation of Andrew Hastie from the frontbench last week;
The rookie Liberal MP Mary Aldred has criticised Andrew Hastie after his shock decision to quit shadow cabinet and urged the party to stop infighting during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday;
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says she wants to introduce penalties for states and territories that fail to make progress on the Closing the Gap targets;
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has taken to social media this morning to announce the Metro Tunnel will open in early December;
A man has been arrested and released without chargers allegedly making a threatening gesture outside Cremorne Synagogue on Tuesday morning;
A footprint found yesterday is unrelated to search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont, SA police say;
GP appointments are getting longer, with the average consultation now nearly 20 minutes, the annual report from the peak body shows.
We’ll bring you more news tomorrow.
Updated
Pro-Palestine supporters gather in Melbourne for evening vigil
Pro-Palestinian activists have gathered in Melbourne to honour Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza on the second anniversary of the 7 October Hamas terror attack.
The vigil, held at MPavilion in the Queen Victoria Gardens in the city, begun at 5pm.
Organisers have planned a procession through the city, with a second vigil expected to be held outside state parliament house later this evening.
Anthony Albanese said protests held on 7 October would undermine support for the Palestinian cause in Australia.
The Melbourne organisers, the Free Palestine Coalition Group, requested attendees to respect grieving families and the silence of the procession.
Updated
