Prime Minister side steps comments made by President Donald Trump

ABC NEWS (Australia)

It was day two of parliament sitting in Canberra and the focus was largely domestic. Our government and leaders acknowledged the extraordinary developments in Washington.

Transcript

00:00Ruby, good afternoon. Well, the Prime Minister has largely sidestepped these comments by

00:06the US President saying he's not going to give a daily running commentary on the remarks

00:11made by Donald Trump. Now, despite multiple questions put to the Prime Minister specifically

00:18on those remarks made by Mr Trump, the declaration that he intends to forcibly relocate the people

00:24of Gaza and what he says, quote, level the site, Anthony Albanese instead stressed Australia,

00:31the Australian government's position of supporting a two state solution and also noting that

00:36it is a bipartisan position in Australia.

00:40Australia's position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, and it

00:45was 10 years ago, and it was under the Howard government. The Australian government support

00:54and a bipartisan basis, a two state solution in the Middle East.

00:59Now the Prime Minister was also asked about whether Australia would consider in the international

01:04effort of eventually rebuilding Gaza. Anthony Albanese says there has been no such request

01:10made at this time. We have also heard from the Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, who is a

01:17former ambassador to Israel. He is somewhat more cautious about these remarks, saying

01:23that they shouldn't be taken so literally.

01:26What he said about US ownership or control of Gaza, at the moment, I think we would need

01:34to see more details about what he has in mind. But something Trump's own team often says

01:39about him is take him seriously, but don't necessarily take him literally. And that would

01:43be the sort of mantra I'd adopt here.

01:45The Greens, though, have been scathing of these comments made by the US President. Greens

01:51leader Adam Bandt says that they should be taken literally and the government should

01:56denounce these comments.

01:59This is the end of international law. This is the United States talking about taking

02:06over another country. That is what the Australian government needs to reject and say also that

02:15Australia will play no part in this decision.

02:21And Pablo, obviously the US has really dominated the day's news, but it's the second parliamentary

02:25sitting day of the year. What else was on the agenda today?

02:28Well, the Prime Minister initially called this press conference today to speak about

02:33a major funding announcement for the nation's public hospitals, announcing that the Albanese

02:38government would spend an extra $1.7 billion for the nation's public hospitals and health

02:44services across the country.

02:47Now, the Prime Minister made the announcement with the health minister, Mark Butler, saying

02:51that the money will go towards help cutting ambulance ramping and waiting times in emergency

02:57departments, which have been an ongoing issue for the whole hospital system around the nation.

03:04The additional funding will boost the Commonwealth's contribution to public hospitals by 12 per

03:10cent.

03:11In question time today, while the government was keen to push this announcement forward,

03:17the Prime Minister was instead quizzed by the opposition on when he was first told by

03:22police that they were investigating the discovery of a caravan allegedly packed with explosives

03:28and found with anti-Semitic notes in it in Sydney's northwest.

03:34The Prime Minister has maintained that it is appropriate for him not to comment specifically

03:39on what he calls operational matters.

03:42We know that the New South Wales Premier, Chris Mins, found out about this a day after

03:47the discovery, the Prime Minister, though, standing his ground.

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