Australia politics live: Australia joins 24 countries to demand immediate end to Gaza war
Date: 2025-07-21T20:38:28.000Z
Title: Albanese promises an 'ambitious government'
Content: The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has spoken to ABC's 7.30 program ahead of the first day of parliament sitting tomorrow following Labor's resounding electoral victory.
Asked about how he will avoid falling into the trap of excessive caution, Albanese said 'with determination making sure we are an ambitious government'.
Albanese flagged the changes announced at the beginning of the month (including increasing the minimum wage, Centrelink payments and parental leave) and said he has an 'ambitious agenda' for this coming week with three important pieces of legislation: reduction student debt, the childcare reform to give parents and legislation to protect penalty rates.
But in order to have those medium and longer-term objectives, you need to make sure you're looking after people's living standards and making sure you're making those immediate changes to make people's lives better.
Update:
Date: 2025-07-21T20:31:34.000Z
Title: foreign minister, Penny Wong
Content: Australia and 24 other countries have signed a joint statement condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of 'human dignity' and calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza.
In the statement, signed by the , the countries called on Israel to 'immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid' and to allow aid organisations 'to do their life saving work'.
It said:
The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.
It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
The statement added that Israeli proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a 'humanitarian city' were 'completely unacceptable'.
Permanent forced displacement was a violation of international humanitarian law, the statement said.
Read our full story here:
Update:
Date: 2025-07-21T20:23:15.000Z
Title: Welcome
Content: Good morning and welcome to our live blog of the first day of Australia's 48th parliament. I'm Martin Farrer with the best of the early stories and then it'll be Krishani Dhanji to bring you the main action.
Australia has joined 24 other countries, including the UK and New Zealand, in condemning Israel for depriving Palestinians of 'human dignity' as they issued a call for an immediate end to the war in Gaza. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, called on Israel to 'immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid' and allow aid organisations 'to do their life saving work'. More coming up.
Anthony Albanese told ABC's 7.30 last night that he finds some of Mark Latham's views 'repulsive' after the Labor caucus voted yesterday to add text to a portrait of the former leader at Parliament House condemning his actions since he departed federal politics. More coming up.
It was a busy pre-parliamentary night for the prime minister as he fielded a range of other questions from the ABC host, Sarah Ferguson. These included her pressing him on his relationship with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and whether or not he has spoken to US officials about how Australia would respond if China attacked Taiwan. All this and more from Albanese's interview coming up.
The first day of the parliament will be marked by rallies and vigils urging the Albanese government to do more to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza. This will include the culmination of three days of rolling protests calling for sanctions on Israel and a 24-hour vigil orgainised by Amnesty International for children killed in the conflict. More shortly.
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