Good afternoon. As defeated MPs continue to look for reasons they lost their seats, there has been a lot of blame to go around and a lot of leadership talk.
James Paterson has pointed to the “Trump effect” for the Liberals’ historic defeat, and Adam Bandt has singled out a boundary move, preference deals and a dip in the primary vote.
Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor are both in the running for the Liberal leadership, while Dan Tehan has ruled himself out of the race.
Top news
Ley and Taylor to contest Liberal leadership as Price defends ‘respectful’ defection
‘What a room!’ PM addresses Labor caucus, praising diversity of MPs
Australian Catholics welcome ‘approachable’ new pope in hope he will pursue peace
Ukraine war briefing: Trump calls for ‘ideally a 30-day ceasefire’ backed with sanctions
In pictures
Julie Fragar has won the 2025 Archibald prize for her portrait of her fellow artist Justene Williams, selected unanimously by the judges from 904 entries and 57 finalists. Read the news story and view some of the finalists in our gallery.
What they said …
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“Loyalty is a rare commodity in politics, but it’s an essential one and, out in the bush, it’s worth everything.”
The fallout from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s decision to defect from the Nationals party room to the Liberals continued, with the Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie calling the move “disappointing”.
In numbers
Shemara Wikramanayake’s annual pay packet, which is tightly linked to Macquarie Group’s profits, comfortably makes her one of Australia’s highest-paid executives.
You can check how much more CEOs earn than average workers in this interactive Guardian Australia published last year.
Before bed read
As psycho-thriller The Surfer is released, Nicolas Cage talks about eating rats, loving pickled eggs and how not a day goes by that he is “not mistaken for Nick Cave”.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: ERN. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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