CANBERRA: Opposition Leader Ssussan Ley has stormed out of a news conference after angrily denying she had been “brainwashed” by far right wingers in her party to change her previous stand on a range of issues including the need for a Palestinian state.

Before beginning her opening statement, Mss Ley manoeuvred into a position behind the lectern which prevented any TV cameras from capturing her and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags behind her in the same shot.

“This week I made it clear that when I am prime minister after the 2028 election…” she began before being forced to stop by an outbreak of spontaneous laughter among news media representatives present.

Continuing after the laughter faded, she said: “This week I made it clear that a coalition government would reverse the antisemitic decision by the antisemitic Albanese Government to antisemitically recognise an antisemitic Palestinian state.”

As a staffer positioned an Israeli flag behind her, Ms Ley was asked for her views on plans by a member of the Netanyahu Government to dramatically expand illegal Israeli settlements in the West bank to sabotage any efforts to establish a Palestinian state. (below)

“That just proves what I have always said, and that is that…,” she said before stopping to repeat the remark and correcting herself.

“That just proves what I have always said since becoming Liberal leader, and that is that Israel has the Right to defend itself.”

Shifting herself sideways slightly after seeing a TV camera that might have caught her in line with the Aboriginal flag, Mss Ley continued: “It has that Right both in Israel and has the Right Right here in Australia… err, I mean it has the Right right here in Australia to defend its actions too.”

Mss Ley was then questioned about her apparent shift in views on Palestine, with a reporter quoting from her past speeches to parliament backing the Palestinian cause and Palestinian state.

“That’s not my position as Liberal leader,” she snapped. “I think if look at that speech you’ll see it was definitely AI,” she said.

When asked if the far right of her party had in any way brainwashed her since becoming leader, Mss Ley called a premature end to the news conference and departed so quickly that her tichel headscarf unravelled as she walked.

After her departure, her staffer said Mss Ley’s mention of AI was not a reference to artificial intelligence.

“She means anti-Israel,” the staffer explained.

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