Australia’s UN ambassador insists Israel ‘must cease settlement activity’ despite abstaining from vote
Daniel Hurst
Australia’s UN ambassador, James Larsen, told the UN general assembly that “the occupation must be brought to an end, such that we see security for Palestinians, for Israel, and for the region”.
Following the abstain vote, he said Australia “supports many of the principles of this resolution” and was “already doing much of what it calls for”.
He said Australia had adopted the name ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ in August 2023 “because that it what they are” and had “affirmed that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal”.
Larsen said Australia insisted that Israel “must cease settlement activity”. He said Australia had also “sanctioned extremist Israeli settlers because they must be held to account for their violence”.
He said Australia would “continue to call out unilateral actions that undermine the prospect for peace”.
Reiterating a shift first foreshadowed in May, Larsen said Australia had “moved” its position on recognising Palestinian statehood:
We now see recognition as an integral part of a peace process, and as a way to contribute meaningfully towards the realisation of a two-state solution.
It’s a matter of when, not if.
It’s the only way to break the cycle of violence – the only hope for a prosperous future for both peoples. A Palestinian state and the State of Israel, side by side, behind secure borders.
Larsen ended by saying the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic” and “international law is under strain” with “the region is on the brink of escalation”. He called for an immediate ceasefire.
Key events
Michaelia Cash then repeated that line for a third time:
Perhaps the terrorist organisation needs to have a bit of a think about what it does. Again though, Israel, all it’s doing is sending a clear message, “just stop attacking us, we want to live in peace just like everybody else”.
Her comments reminded a blog watcher of something they had read this morning – the Australian newspaper’s Greg Sheridan wrote an analysis on the situation which was published this morning. The headline?
“Israel’s message to terrorists is simple: ‘Just stop attacking us’”
Michaelia Cash continued, telling the Nine network:
I lived in Northern Israel 30 years ago. I lived up there, I experienced the Katyusha missiles coming over on a regular basis. That is life in Israel.
They [Hezbollah] are a listed terrorist organisation who have been indiscriminately attacking Israel for decades in a demilitarised zone, but since October 7, they have been attacking them almost every single day.
So, Israel is just sending a clear message, as distressing as that message must be, “just stop attacking us”.
The one thing I learnt when I lived there is they all ultimately wanted to live in peace.
Well then, the terrorists need to stop attacking Israel.
Cash and McCarthy asked about attacks in Lebanon
Liberal senator Michaelia Cash and Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy have been asked about the latest attack in Lebanon.
As Julian Borger writes in his analysis, “Israel has not admitted responsibility for the blasts but there is little doubt around the region that this was an operation bearing the Mossad’s hallmarks”.
McCarthy said it was “incredibly alarming in terms of the way it’s occurring”.
To hear the news yesterday of what occurred, now this morning we’re hearing different news. Obviously, our concern as the Australian government is to see a de-escalation of tension in the region. We certainly don’t want to see any escalation there or any thoughts or plans for war. It’s not something that we want to happen, and we’re certainly making sure through our foreign minister Penny Wong, in her discussions across the Middle East, ensuring that they know Australia’s point.
Michaelia Cash was more bullish:
Let’s be very clear here. What is Israel doing and saying? They’re sending a very clear message to the terrorists, “just stop attacking us”.
Greens senator says early education and childcare system ‘broken’
Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May’s staff are very quick off the mark this morning. Hodgins-May responded to Anthony Albanese’s comments about not responding to the Productivity Commission’s 56 recommendations on early childhood education and childcare.
Prime Minister Albanese’s lack of a commitment to universal childcare in this term on RN this morning is proof of yet more government delay on any real reform for early childhood education and care.
This year, we’ve had two government-commissioned reports on childcare released from the ACCC and now the Productivity Commission – both of which confirmed a broken early education system in Australia.
… The government needs to get on with the job and deliver concrete action to make childcare not just universal but free for all children, just like primary and secondary school.
Eyes on RBA after US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates
Peter Hannam
As financial markets expected, the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, sliced half a percentage point off official interest rates overnight, the first US rate cut in four years.
The cut, lowering the target rate to a range of 4.75%-5%, will probably be followed by two more reductions by the year’s end – both of them coming after the 5 November presidential election.
The Fed clearly thinks inflation in the US has been quelled and it needed to cut deep to avoid a too-rapid slowdown in the world’s largest economy. As most US borrowers are on fixed terms, cuts don’t have the same near-instant demand boost as Australia’s variable-rate loans would.
Australians, naturally, will ask: can the Reserve Bank start its rate cuts soon, such as at its two-day meeting next Monday and Tuesday? The likely answer: no.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, has made it clear Australian conditions are different from peer economies, as is its inflation target (2%-3%). Bullock has also said a rate cut is unlikely this year (making its February meeting, to kick off 2025, the soonest a reduction might land).
She made those comments at a time when financial markets had already priced in a Fed cut this week. Indeed, the Australian dollar was only marginally stronger overnight, at 67.6 US cents in recent trading, because of those expectations.
Still, rate cuts are happening in Europe, Canada and now the US, so the Aussie dollar will tend to be stronger. On the margin, that means imports get cheaper and that helps lower Australia’s inflation rate.
All-seeing markets (until they get surprised) expect the RBA to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% next Tuesday – where it’s sat since last November.
Monthly inflation figures land the next day, with the prospect of another drop from July’s 3.5% reading. More of those falls – especially for the more comprehensive quarterly CPI figures – will be needed before the RBA is ready to follow the Fed.
Albanese says government will ‘respond appropriately’ to childcare report – but it will take time
And circling back to the Productivity Commission report on childcare, Anthony Albanese says the government will “respond appropriately”.
But it won’t be all done before the next election. Which isn’t new – the plan to make childcare universal is a 10-year plan, which is something Albanese has spoken about before.
We do think this is something that wouldn’t be achieved in just one term. I indicated that before the last election, but we’ve made significant advances on our agenda in our first term. There is more to do in our second term.
Albanese: ‘The problem isn’t advertising. The problem is gambling’
So will the Albanese government be bold on gambling ads and commit to a total ban as recommended by the Peta Murphy led inquiry?
Anthony Albanese:
It’s not a matter of doing something in order to satisfy a perception of boldness. It’s a matter of policy.
He goes on:
The problem isn’t advertising. The problem is gambling. That’s the problem. And when you look at what the fact is that, overwhelmingly, almost 70% of problem gambling is about poker machines.
An additional about 15% is about lotteries and lottos and those things. I haven’t seen a campaign about advertising in lottery, lotteries and lotto, which is far bigger problem than than sports gambling.
Now sports gambling ads, I find them annoying. but we need to get the policy right rather than, I think, it’s the opposite of what you say.
Sometimes things that are characterised as being bold are actually the easy options. The easy option is just to do that. Not worry about the consequences for sporting code, junior sport, all of that, not worry about the prime minister or media, but to do what lobby groups want you to do now, we’re consulting, and we will listen to all of the groups with respect, and we’ll come up with the right policy that will make a positive difference.
So is the Albanese government ‘bold’?
Anthony Albanese:
Well, have a look at that decision [stage-three tax changes].
There’s nothing timid about it, and many people will look back at the past and romanticise the past. What my government has done is dealt with the present and set us up for the future. That’s been our job. That’s been our job.
But there’s nothing timid about that. There’s nothing timid about reforming the NDIS so it’s sustainable.
There’s nothing timid about the largest reform to aged care in 30 years.
There’s nothing timid about putting forward a $32 billion plan for housing, and there is nothing timid about intervening into the gas and coal markets to control prices in order to put that downward pressure on energy costs for families and importantly, for businesses, including for manufacturing, that was an incredibly significant intervention into the market.
Stage-three tax cuts were ‘not the politically safe decision to make’, Albanese says
The interview has moved on to whether or not the Albanese government is ‘bold’ or not.
Albanese is asked whether changing the stage-three tax cuts was the best decision of his government and says:
Clearly at the time, if you go back and look at the first 48 hours after that decision, every front page of the paper was not exactly lauding us and saying that we were a mild government.
That was not the terms that were being used. It was the right decision made for the right reasons, but it was a tough decision that we made, and it certainly was one which was not the politically safe decision to make.
Albanese wishes Senate would ‘do something more than talk to each other’
On the double dissolution threat, Anthony Albanese says:
Journalists raised it with me. What I’m interested in is governing.
But Albanese didn’t take it off the table.
You get asked these hypotheticals.
He could have just said no and taken if off the table.
We’re governing. We’re governing. We’re governing. The election will be held on a day when I get in the little car with the flag on the front and visit Yarralumla [Government House].
What I’m interested in isn’t elections, isn’t the nature of those elections. What I’m interested in is getting things done, and I just wish that the Senate would do something more than talk to each other for three days without having a vote on any legislation. I think the Australians deserve better, and they need to know that there is a vast difference between what the Grange political parties say they will do and how they actually vote when they team up with Peter Dutton to block funding for housing,
