Australia takes another step towards recognition of Palestine

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister has been in contact with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer overnight following Britain’s decision to recognise a state of Palestine at the UN's next general assembly in September. Australia has in recent hours signed onto another joint statement with 14 other countries, declaring its 'grave concerns' over the starvation crisis in Gaza.

Transcript

00:00I guess there's more pressure on the Albanese government to do so after we've seen both

00:07France and the UK indicating that it will recognise Palestinian statehood at the upcoming

00:13General Assembly meeting of the United Nations in September, unless there is a major shift

00:19in Israel's approach in Gaza.

00:21Today, Australia was a signatory on a joint statement, so joining 14 other nations such

00:28as Finland and Canada, one decrying the humanitarian crisis on the ground in Gaza, but simultaneously

00:35spelling out really an openness to this question of Palestinian statehood.

00:42It has been the Albanese government's position for about a year now that it is open to this

00:48question of Palestinian statehood at some point during the peace negotiation process, and

00:56it's been the long-standing position, a belief in two states, so Israelis and Palestinians

01:03living side by side.

01:06The coalition, though, hasn't been impressed with this response today.

01:10They say that it could be interpreted as rewarding Hamas, and as you'll see in the statement here

01:16from the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, she says that this question of recognising

01:22Palestinian statehood should come at the end of the peace negotiation process, not at the

01:27start or during it.

01:29The coalition has been consistently clear that there can be no recognition of a Palestinian

01:34state with Hamas still in control of Gaza, and Hamas can have no role in governing a Palestinian

01:40state.

01:41The Prime Minister has made it pretty clear that it's his contention, too, that Hamas could

01:45have no future role, so one of the conditions that he'd like to see if Palestinian recognition

01:53was given by Australia is the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the democratisation of Gaza

02:01as well, and he certainly doesn't want to see any Hamas involvement whatsoever.

02:06When asked about the timing, about whether he will make a similar move to France and the

02:11UK, he says that he doesn't have a particular date in mind.

02:16What I've said is that it's not the timeline, it's not what we're looking at, what we're

02:22looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation

02:32of two states.

02:34I was in contact with Prime Minister Starmer overnight.

02:42I've said for a long time, my entire political life, I've said I support two states.

02:50The right of Israel to exist with insecure borders and the right of Palestinians to have

02:57their legitimate aspirations for their own state realised.

03:02That's my objective.

03:03Not making a statement, not winning a political point, but achieving that.

03:15Prime Minister speaking there earlier today.

03:17And Olivia on another subject now, and this is the government's social media ban for kids.

03:23What's happening with YouTube on that front?

03:25So, the government had initially said that YouTube would be exempt from its social media

03:31ban for under 16-year-olds because they saw it as an educational tool.

03:36But following advice from the eSafety Commissioner, the government has now said that YouTube will

03:42be one of the platforms that are captured by this ban when it comes into play towards the

03:49end of this year.

03:50So, today the major development has been that rules of how this ban is going to operate have

03:55been introduced to Parliament.

03:57It includes some details such as the platforms that won't be captured and those, for example,

04:03that are primarily focused on things such as gaming or health or education.

04:09It does come days, though, after Google, which is the parent company for YouTube, indicated

04:14that it might actually sue the Australian government if it includes YouTube in this ban.

04:21The Prime Minister today, though, is saying that he doesn't fear those threats and he's

04:26not going to be bullied by the social media giants.

04:30So, that was an interesting development today.

04:32And he also revealed that when he heads to New York in September of this year, that he'll

04:37be spruiking Australia's social media ban to other nations around the world.

04:44And he indicated that there's certainly been some interest or willingness in this proposal

04:49because it is a world first.

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