2m agoMon 21 Jul 2025 at 9:18pm
Australia joins other nations to call for end of war in Gaza
Australia’s joint statement overnight calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza “would be” the strongest statement so far, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says.
The statement, signed by 25 countries including Australia, the UK and France, criticises what they called the “inhumane killing” of Palestinians and condemns the “drip-feeding of aid”.
Burke tells ABC News Breakfast it’s just the latest in a series of “very strong statements” made by the government.
“On our own, Australia’s not a loud voice or a decisive voice on the other side of the world. But when you can make a statement together with so many other significant powers, then, you know, we’re all
hoping that there’ll be something that will break this,” he says.
“We’ve seen too many images of children being killed, of horrific slaughter, of churches being bombed, the images that we’ve seen have been pretty clear that so much of this is indefensible and as that statement referred to, you know, aid being drip-fed in. None of this changes the fact that the hostages need to be released, of course that needs to happen.”
9m agoMon 21 Jul 2025 at 9:11pm
What to expect from the first sitting day
While the government may want to just jump in and kickstart its second-term agenda, it has to attend to the traditional side of parliament first.
Pomp and ceremony will take centre stage for most of the day. It begins at an early morning church service in Canberra. I expect we’ll hear a little bit from Anthony Albanese and Sussan Ley on their arrival.
After a short walk up the hill, proceedings will officially kick off around 9am with a Welcome to Country and a traditional smoking ceremony.
From there, new members and senators will be sworn in. A new speaker of the House and Senate president will be elected.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn will also be in attendance. All of the MPs and senators will squeeze into the Senate chamber to listen to her speech later this afternoon.
At the conclusion of her address, there will be a 19-gun salute on the lawns out the front of Parliament House.
That will take up much of the day. But I’ve been informed that from around 5.30pm, a group of new Labor MPs will begin to give their first speeches. First up are leader-slayers Ali France (Dickson) and Sarah Witty (Melbourne). Anne Urquhart (Braddon), Gabriel Ng (Deakin) and Renee Coffey (Griffith) are also on the list. Now, what do all of those MPs have in common? They each took a seat from the Liberals or the Greens on May 3.
13m agoMon 21 Jul 2025 at 9:07pm
Australia, UK, France and other nations call for an immediate end to war in Gaza
Twenty five countries, including Australia, the UK and France, are demanding an immediate end to the war in Gaza and for Israel to lift aid restrictions.
The joint statement, signed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, comes amid growing international concern over the number of deaths at aid sites in the enclave.
It criticises what they called the “inhumane killing” of Palestinians and condemns the “drip feeding of aid”.
The statement also voices sharp condemnation of the Israeli government’s aid delivery model.
21m agoMon 21 Jul 2025 at 8:59pm
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks out against ‘repulsive’ Mark Latham
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he regrets Mark Latham ever having led the Labor Party and described the former leader’s views as “repulsive”.
The comments came during a wide-ranging interview with 7.30 in which Albanese spoke on his trip to China, his relationship with President Xi Jinping and whether he felt the US would be concerned by their meeting.
While Albanese was in China, Latham — now an independent NSW MP — faced mounting pressure to resign following allegations he participated in a consensual sex video in his parliamentary office, an allegation that arose as part of a wide-ranging complaint of emotional and physical abuse by his ex-partner, Nathalie Matthews.
Latham has denied breaking any laws or breaching legislative standing orders and, as a former Labor leader, his portrait still hangs in the Labor caucus room in Parliament House.
Albanese was asked if he wanted to take the picture down and, while he stopped short, he did comment on Latham’s leadership.
“I didn’t want Mark Latham to be the leader of the Labor Party, and was very clear about that at the time,” Albanese told 7.30 before speaking about the decision to keep the portrait hanging.
“It’s a historical fact. It’s a bit like statues and a range of things, history is there. The way to deal with that is to point out the changes that have occurred.”
You can catch up on the PM’s interview with 7.30 at the link below.
31m agoMon 21 Jul 2025 at 8:48pm
👋 Good morning
Hi friends, welcome to our politics live blog.
I’m Courtney Gould, logging in from the ABC’s Parliament House bureau in Canberra, ready to bring you all the news as it comes in.
Well, today is the day that parliament returns for the first time since the May 3 election. There will be a lot of pomp and ceremony throughout the day, the swearing in of MPs and senators and we’ll start hearing first speeches from some of the newbies.
It’s a day largely pre-planned with little surprises and without question time (that resumes tomorrow). But we’ll get our eyes officially just on how the new House of Reps looks with Labor’s massive 94-seat majority.
So grab a coffee and let’s jump right into it.
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