Tim Wilson gives second first speech – as it happened | Australia news

Key events

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:

See you tomorrow.

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Updated at 04.14 EDT

Sarah Basford Canales

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.

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Updated at 04.08 EDT

Man faces court accused of selling police uniforms

At least 28 pieces of police uniform have allegedly been sold illegally by a man who had access to the items through his employment, AAP reports.

Benjamin Lee Onley, 50, appeared at Sydney’s Sutherland local court on Tuesday after he was accused of stealing 71 pieces of unauthorised law enforcement uniform and attempting to sell them.

Police allege Onley was employed by a company involved in the procurement and disposal of NSW police force uniform and insignia.

Onley was arrested on Tuesday after detectives searched his home in Thirroul on the NSW south coast earlier in July and seized a mobile phone. Police allege the phone contained evidence that Onley had attempted to sell 71 pieces of NSWPF uniform and insignia, of which 28 were sold.

Onley was also allegedly in possession of unauthorised firearms, including a pistol.

Following his arrest, he was charged with four offences including stolen property charges and possession of prohibited firearms.

Onley is in custody after not applying for bail at his first court appearance on Tuesday. The matter is expected to return to court on 12 August.

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Updated at 03.58 EDT

Cautious gains on ASX as forthcoming inflation data could sway Reserve Bank on interest rates

The local share market has clawed back losses to close marginally higher ahead of a key inflation readout that could determine whether the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates, AAP reports.

After a small decline early on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index moved into positive territory in the last 40 minutes of trading to close 6.9 points higher at 8,704.6.

The energy sector was the biggest gainer on Tuesday, rising 0.7% as Santos rose 2.1% to $7.91 and Woodside gained 1.6% to $26.60. In the financial sector, CommBank dropped 0.4% to $174.29 as NAB advanced 1.2% to $38.20, while ANZ and Westpac stayed flat.

Traders were cautious ahead of tomorrow’s release of inflation data for the three months to June, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said. He said the consumer price data would be key for the RBA:

(It’s) the final determining factor as to whether the RBA cuts rates in August – bringing potential relief to Australia’s mortgage holders – or elects to keep rates on hold, opting for short-term pain for long-term gain in the fight against inflation, which many think has already been won.

HSBC’s chief Australia and New Zealand economist Paul Bloxham said the bank expects the readout would show the RBA’s preferred inflation metric to print at 0.6% quarter-on-quarter and 2.7% year-on-year, which HSBC sees as allowing the RBA to trim rates in August.

But if trimmed mean inflation comes in at higher than that, an August rate cut would be less likely, Bloxham said.

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Updated at 04.03 EDT

Tim Wilson announces ‘truth-bomb phase’ as he blames Liberals’ lack of vision for election rout

Sarah Basford Canales

Goldstein MP Tim Wilson says the Liberals’ miserable election losses came down to the opposition not offering a “bold and courageous” vision for Australians.

The former MP, who was returned to the House of Representatives in the 2025 federal election after being ousted in 2022 by teal MP Zoe Daniel, delivered his second first speech in the lower house this evening, where he reflected on the opposition’s recent losses.

Under the chamber’s practices, members who have already delivered a first speech in the same chamber don’t usually get a second chance. Wilson recognised the cheeky move, describing his earlier first speech as his “first-first” speech as opposed to his second-first speech.

But moving on, Wilson has used this (second) first speech to announce he’s in his “truth-bomb phase” before offering some insights about why Australians punished the Liberals at the polls.

Wilson said:

It’s simple: You can’t multiply your vote by dividing Australians. It betrays Menzian liberalism, because liberalism has no geography … Liberalism is the spark of aspiration that compels a young farm hand to milk cows before sun’s rise so they can save to own their own dairy farm one day …

And at the last election, we let them down because we were not the bold and courageous Liberals that gave Australians confidence to dare for a better future.

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Updated at 03.55 EDT

‘Good on them’: Liberal MP applauds Nationals push to dump net zero

Liberal frontbencher James McGrath has compared concerns over a campaign to drop Australia’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 to a meltdown and a caffeine overdose.

Asked about the push, led by Nationals backbenchers Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack, McGrath told the ABC:

The whole building is having a meltdown because some members of the National party have a different view on net zero and want to push forward and advocate their views. Guess what? Good on them. So what? Are there any other issues out there? I want to focus on Chris Bowen and focus that Labor promised to cut power bills by $275.

McGrath said he believed Australia should cut emissions as long as economic crash could be avoided but said the Coalition was a “boisterous party”:

I don’t understand why this building is having (a meltdown). It’s almost like everyone has overdosed on caffeine or something like that.

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Updated at 03.26 EDT

Data on Indigenous deaths in custody prompts call to cut NT police funding

More than 600 Indigenous Australians have died in policy custody since 1991, new data shows, prompting calls for cuts to police funding in Northern Territory.

Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe and First Nations advocacy organisations have called for the Albanese government to pause federal funding for NT policing and prisons until the Territory moves to reduce incarceration of First Peoples and children.

Thorpe told the ABC the government had provided $205m in funding to the NT police, labelled as ‘closing the gap’ money. She said this should be redirected to community organisations:

Imagine $205m going to communities to self-determine what is best for us or what is best for them. Our children don’t belong in prisons …

The federal government, through the Closing The Gap initiative, is funding the police instead. So there is a way that feds can step in, firstly to remove that money, take it back and give it back to those self-determined programs that actually work.

The number of Indigenous people who have died in custody has reached 602 since 1992’s royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. That includes 60 in 2025 alone.

Advocacy groups including North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency have warned the incarceration crisis is escalating, backing calls for suspending commonwealth funding until the police force changes direction. The number of NT residents imprisoned has hit a record high since the Country Liberal government was elected with a tough on crime approach.

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Updated at 03.21 EDT

Not possible to declare Palestinian state while Hamas dominates, Labor frontbencher says

Labor frontbencher Rebecca White has said the government has “grave concerns” at the prospect Palestine could be recognised as a state, due to Hamas’ strength in the region.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said Australia has no plans to follow France and more than 140 other countries by recognising the state of Palestine.

That reluctance is in part due to fears over Hamas’ ongoing power in the region, Rebecca White, Labor’s assistant minister for health, has said. She told the ABC:

I don’t think any of us at the moment feel that it’s possible, with Hamas being so dominant in the region, to just simply declare a Palestinian state without having grave concerns for what that looks like and the prime minister has been clear that we won’t do this as a tokenistic gesture.

It’s about making sure that when we can join with other nations across the world to support a two-state solution. We would like to see that achieved and I understand that both sides across the chamber want the same thing.

The UK government has faced rising internal and external pressure to recognise the state of Palestine. Australian Labor branches are also pushing for immediate recognition – you can read more here:

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Updated at 03.03 EDT

New Bradfield MP ‘ready to roll’ if court challenge forces byelection

Nicolette Boele has committed to working constructively with the court as the Liberal party challenges her narrow election to a North Sydney seat.

The independent MP for Bradfield won the seat after a recount of the federal election result, which delivered her the seat on a thin margin of 26 votes. She said she was confident in that process but wouldn’t stand in the way of the Liberal challenge:

It’s a great credit to the strength of our democracy that we have that relief valve and I’ll be doing everything in my power to be a constructive part of getting a resolution. … (The challenge) has sharpened my attention and made me work really, really hard.

Boele said she would go back to her electorate campaigning on climate, cost-of-living and housing issues if the challenge produced a byelection. Asked whether she was ready for that outcome, Boele said:

Ready to roll.

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Updated at 02.52 EDT

NSW police threaten court action to block pro-Palestinian march across Sydney Harbour Bridge

Jordyn Beazley

The New South Wales police have knocked back an application to facilitate a pro-Palestine protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge this weekend due to “public safety”.

Deputy commissioner Peter McKenna said the police were yet to inform the Sydney-based Palestine Action Group of their decision, but were open to negotiate an alternative route for the protest.

If the group stands by its plan to proceed with the protest across the bridge this weekend, he said the police would challenge it in the supreme court.

McKenna said:

I know people will say that we have closed (it before). You need to understand, months and months of planning goes into that.

Asked what the minimum amount of notice is that the police would need to facilitate such a protest, he said:

It depended on many, many factors, (that’s) probably too complex to articulate in a few words. But like I said, if I give the example of a Sydney marathon, there’s about 10 months of planning.

If the matter is heard in the supreme court, and it sides with police, then it means anyone who attends the protest will not be protected from being charged under the anti-protest laws.

McKenna said the police will have resources on standby in case the protest does go ahead.

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Updated at 02.45 EDT

‘The time for just words is over’: Pocock calls for more targeted Israel sanctions ‘starting with Netanyahu’

Independent senator David Pocock has repeated calls for sanctions on Israel over its war in Gaza, criticising the Albanese government’s approach of “saying harsher and harsher things”.

The prime minister over the weekend heightened his criticism of the Israeli government but the Canberra senator said he was not satisfied with Labor’s approach. Pocock told the ABC:

The time for just words is over. We’ve even got President Trump now saying that clearly starvation is happening. It’s time to start with more targeted sanctions, starting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, ratcheting them up …

What’s it going to take for this government? Just saying harsher and harsher things is not going to have an impact.

Pocock, who has advocated targeted sanctions on Israel for over a year, said the government’s approach had given rise to increasing community protests and advocacy.

A lot of the unrest we’re seeing, people wanting to protest, is looking at what we’re seeing: this sort of live-streamed human-induced famine and then seeing a prime minister and a ‘government that just says, ‘Oh, well, we’re saying harsher and harsher things’. They want our government to act.

One of those protests in support of Palestine, a march planned for this Sunday across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is facing pressure from the government in New South Wales. We’re expecting an update on how police will handle the march shortly.

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Updated at 02.41 EDT