Key events
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On the issue of HECS debt, the Prime Minister is asked whether the government will take action on the Job-Ready Graduates Scheme now that it has cut HECS debts by 20%.
We’re dealing with one thing at a time, David, and this week, what we have done is fulfil the commitments that we gave. As the first piece of legislation and it will be the first piece of legislation that passes the Parliament. In the coming week, we’ll make sure it goes through both the House of Reps and the Senate will save 3 million Australians and average of $5,500 each.
The PM is also about the future of the government’s budget and leaked modelling from Treasury that suggested taxes will have to increase and spending will have to fall to fix future problems with the budget over time.
He says the government has a process and that it will consider the issues on their merits as they arise, saying “we need to get fiscal policy right.”
What it means is what we have done is we produced two budget surpluses and we have reduced the budget deficit going forward compared to what was anticipated to be before we were elected.
Albanese: no decision yet about including YouTube in social media ban
Asked about reports that Google is threatening to sue the Australian government if YouTube is included in its social media ban for young people, the prime minister says no decision has been made on whether to include the service. He says the e-Safety commissioner “has made her view clear” on the issue.
There are media reports that Google is threatening to sue the Australian government if its YouTube channel is included in the government’s social media ban. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
He says the minister will make their decision “independently of any of these threats that are made by the social media companies”.
I say to them that social media has a social responsibility. There is no doubt that young people are being impacted adversely in their mental health by some of the engagement with social media and that is why the government has acted.
I’ll be meeting parents again this week, people who have been through tragedy, frankly, and the government has a responsibility to act and across the parliament we have acted and one of the things that concerns some of the social media companies is that we are leading the world and I’m proud that we’re prepared to stand these people up.
Updated at 19.43 EDT
Albanese: decision to let in US beef part of a ‘review process’
Turning now to the relationship with the US, Albanese is asked about how the Trump administration has been framing the decision by Australia to lift restrictions on imports of US beef to Australia.
The Trump administration says this has been a triumph of negotiation; Albanese says it was the result of “a process that has been there for 10 years, the review process”. He says Donald Trump did not raise the issue with him directly, but raised it “publicly”.
So he – his views were well-known, and the Americans – before Donald Trump assumed the presidency in January – in December they made some changes and then at the beginning of this year, some further changes.
Updated at 19.46 EDT
Albanese says that Australia is not about to “imminently” recognise a Palestinian state and says that while “Australia will always make our decisions as a sovereign state” involvement of the United States “is critical”.
The United States was playing a role in negotiating with the Saudis and Jordan and states in the region about how you move the Middle East conflict forward.
Albanese said he agreed with the assessment of former prime minister John Howard that “there can be no solution in the Middle East without solving the Palestinian question”, saying “Howard was right then and anyone who thinks that now is right as well.”
We need security for the state of Israel, but you need to have the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians for their own state realised as well. That will mean security arrangements, it will need agreements as well about the rebuilding of Gaza and the West Bank. It will need the issue of settlements to resolve as well.
The PM says it is unlikely these issues will resolve before the UN meets in September but he said Australia will “play a constructive role in that”.
As a middle power, we don’t have a great deal of direct influence in the Middle East. That’s the truth.
Notwithstanding some of the debate that’s happened here. What we do have, though, is the capacity to engage with our international partners which is why we have been prepared to be a part of statements with like-minded countries.
PM: Guarantee needed Hamas won’t be involved in any future Palestine state before Australia recognises it
Australia will not follow the lead of France and recognise a Palestinian state but will “make a decision at an appropriate time”, Albanese says.
Albanese reiterated Australia’s support for a two-state solution, describing French recognition of a Palestinian state as a “gesture”.
So some would argue – why don’t you just recognise a state? You need to recognise a Palestinian state as part of moving forward. How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian state operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel? And so we won’t do any decision as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward if the circumstances are met.
Albanese said his government would need guarantees that Hamas would not be involved in any future Palestinian state in order to recognise it. He said there had been no elections in the Palestinian Authority “for a long period of time”.
The PM said “you need to consider all of the circumstances at any particular time” and that “a decision takes forward the operation of two states, effectively”. He pointed to efforts to negotiate a normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Updated at 19.29 EDT
Albanese: Hamas can have no role in any future state, Israel must operate within international law
Anthony Albanese says he has spoken to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to tell him Israel is losing support.
What I have said to the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, is that what sometimes friends have to say to their other friends when they are losing support. Israel is – I think, when you look at internationally, the statements that have been made by including this week more than two dozen nations combining to call out the lack of aid being allowed into Gaza – is that they need to recognise, they need to operate within international law.
Asked again to clarify whether he is describing a breach of international law, Albanese says Israel has “quite clearly” breached international law.
International law says that you can’t hold innocent people responsible for what is a conflict. I mean, we have to be very clear. Hamas’ actions on October 7 is where the current atrocities began and Hamas can have no role in a future state.
Hamas is terrorist organisation who I find – their actions are abhorrent. The fact they have held on to the hostages, they’re not only holding Israeli citizens as hostage, but they’re holding Palestinians hostage as well, effectively through their failure to engage in any constructive way.
But Israel as a democratic state has a responsibility to ensure that innocent lives are not lost and what we have seen is too many Israeli and Palestinians lives lost and every life matters.
Updated at 19.25 EDT
PM on Gaza: stopping food deliveries ‘quite clearly’ a breach of international law
Albanese suggests Israel has breached international law by stopping food being delivered to Gaza.
Albanese:
Quite clearly it is a breach of international law to stop food being delivered, which was a decision that Israel made in March.
Palestinians queue to collect food aid at a distribution point in the northern Gaza Strip, earlier this year. Photograph: Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images
When asked whether he was describing this as a breach of international law, Albanese said he was “not a lawyer” but that he considered it a “breach of decent humanity and of morality”.
Everyone can see that. I’m a supporter of Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself, but that boy isn’t challenging Israel’s right to existence, and nor are the many who continue to suffer from the unavailability of food and water. The fact that people have lost their lives queueing to get food and water distributed, not by the UN, but distributed by the joint Israeli-American operation is a tragedy.
Updated at 19.35 EDT
Albanese: image of starving child in Gaza ‘breaks your heart’; says Israel aid airdrops ‘just a start’
Prime minister Anthony Albanese has told ABC Insiders a decision by the Israeli government to allow some aid into Gaza is “just a start” and more needs to be done to protect the innocent.
Albanese pointed to images of a starving one-year-old boy saying “it breaks your heart”.
A one-year-old boy is not a Hamas fighter. The civilian casualties and deaths in Gaza is completely unacceptable. It’s completely indefensible. My government has been very consistent in calling for a ceasefire. We have been consistent in calling out the terrorists in Hamas and saying that the hostages should be released. But we have rules of engagement and they are there for a reason. They are to stop innocent lives being lost and that is what we have seen.
Albanese said he had been moved by the images of this “innocent young boy”.
For anyone with any sense of humanity, you have to be moved by that. And you have to acknowledge that every innocent life matters – whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.
The PM said “we need to move to a longer-term” solution and he called for a two-state solution.
Starving one-year-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq in Gaza City on Monday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 19.30 EDT
Race car driver killed during motor championship
A racing car driver has died in a single-vehicle crash during a state championship event at a motorsport park.
Emergency services were called to Sydney Motorsport Park after the incident on Saturday night during the NSW Motor Race Championship.
Paramedics gave medical treatment to the driver, 53, but he died at the scene.
Police have established a crime scene and will investigate the crash.
Officers will prepare a report for the coroner.
Motorsport Australia has been notified, police said.
– AAP
Updated at 19.10 EDT
Anthony Albanese will speak to ABC Insiders host David Speers this morning.
Earlier, the trade minister Don Farrell spoke to Sky News, followed by the shadow foreign minister Michaelia Cash.
We will bring you the latest as it happens.
Updated at 18.48 EDT
Deputy PM to attend war games in Darwin with UK counterparts
Richard Marles will be in Darwin on Sunday to attend the Talisman Sabre military exercises after signing a 50-year submarine deal with Britain.
The deputy prime minister signed the Anglo-Australian submarine agreement with visiting UK ministers David Lammy and John Healey on Saturday. That agreement will continue the Aukus nuclear submarine deal despite an review by the US government.
Lammy and Healey will join Marles in Darwin on today to watch the military exercise.
Talisman Sabre, Australia’s largest and most sophisticated war-fighting exercise, started on 13 July and involves more than 35,000 personnel from 19 militaries across three weeks.
In addition to the US, forces from Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the UK have joined as partners.
Malaysia and Vietnam are also attending as observers.
The 2025 war games involve the UK’s Carrier Strike Group, led by the Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales – the first UK carrier strike group to visit Australia since 1997.
– AAP
Updated at 19.08 EDT
Good Morning
And welcome to another Sunday Guardian live blog.
The Talisman Sabre war games will continue in Darwin today with the defence minister Richard Marles expected to attend alongside visiting UK ministers David Lammy and John Healey. The exercises in Australia’s Top End involve 35,000 personnel from 19 countries, with Malaysia and Vietnam joining as observers.
A race car driver has been killed in a crash during a state championship event in Sydney overnight. The 53-year-old driver was competing in the NSW Motor Race Championship when the crash occurred. He died at the scene.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
Updated at 19.13 EDT