Australian news and politics live: PM accuses media of publishing Hamas propaganda amid Palestine backlash

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says leaked pre-written possible outcomes of the government’s reform roundtable next week shows the forum is a “stitch up”.

Speaking to journalists in Adelaide on Thursday, she said the leaks suggested the “whole exercise has been choreographed and that outcomes have already been determined”

“That just tells me this whole thing is a stitch-up,” she said.

“People are attending in good faith and they want to contribute to a discussion about improving productivity in this country and raising the living standards for all Australians.

“We have a Treasurer and a Prime Minister who are breaking promise after promise. Including a promise that they would not raise taxes and all along they’re lining up an exercise at this productivity roundtable that is all about raising taxes.

“We’ll call it out when we see it.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called for the Prime Minister to “get back to domestic matters” after days of controversy over his decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

“The Prime Minister has said he’s not a cheerleader for Hamas. The problem is, that Hamas is a cheerleader for him,” she told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.

“They’re calling our Prime Minister a man of courage on a day when a terrorist organisation calls our Prime Minister a hero, surely he has to think about reversing the decision that led to that.

“It is time for the Prime Minister to get back to important domestic matters.”

The Coalition have long supported a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine but have criticised the PM for declaring he would recognise Palestinian statehood in September when listed terrorist organisation Hamas is still in control of the region.

“We do support a two-state solution, but we don’t support it outside of a proper peace process and a proper two-state process,” she said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is the latest Labor MP to defend the Albanese Government’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood after a wave of criticism it emboldens Hamas.

Speaking in Brisbane on Thursday, he said the Albanese government had been clear in its condemnation of the listed terrorist organisation, including its horrific attack on October 7.

“The policy that we announced earlier in the week is about isolating and excluding Hamas,” Dr Chalmers said.

“There is absolutely no role for Hamas in the future government of the Palestinian state. We have made that clear. We want to see the return of the hostages. We want to see the aid flow.

“We condemn the terrorist attacks of October 7 and our position is that we want to see the people of Israel and the people of Palestine, the families and people of those two parts of the Middle East to be able to raise their kids in peace.

“That is what a two-state solution is all about.

“We will work with the international community, to keep the Palestinian authority up to the mark on the commitments that they have made.”

Labor Minister Amanda Rishworth has rejected comments by Hamas praising Australia’s ‘courage’ to recognise a Palestinian state, after opponents of the move seized on them as proof the Government had got it wrong.

“There is no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state, the international community is clear on that,” she told Sunrise on Thursday.

“The way to sideline Hamas is not to continue to see the cycle of violence happening; it is actually to create two states that are secure in their borders.”

But Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the reaction from Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation in Australia, showed the recognition move was a serious misstep

“When terrorists are cheering your foreign policy, you have got it wrong,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB.

“The Prime Minister is making a complete mess of this. He’s right out of his depth.”

​​Read the full story here.​​

While rolling out his well-worn line that the Albanese Government won’t play a “rule-in, rule-out game”, the Prime Minister has claimed he’s up for “big reforms” at the economic roundtable next week.

Mr Albanese said he was open to ideas and working with Treasurer Jim Chalmers to identify which policies emerging from the forum the Government could act on, and within what timeframe.

“We’re up for a range of reforms but those decisions, of course, are up to the Government,” he said on Thursday.

“There’ll be some things that are put forward that can be done immediately.

“Some things can be the result of legislation. Some things will feed into next year’s Budget.

“Some things will feed into future commitments about future terms.

“And we encourage people to come forward with ideas.

“We don’t want to have a rule-in, rule-out game.”

The PM’s openness and talk of reform comes after he had intervened in similar rhetoric from Dr Chalmer’s last week to temper expectations of major tax reform.

Anthony Albanese has hit back at claims Labor have choreographed how they will respond to the reform roundtable next week, after a leaked Treasury document revealed a number of recommended outcomes for the yet to be held event.

Questioned about if the pre-written possible outcomes proved the event was a “waste of everyone’s time”, the PM said “not at all” and claimed he headed an “open government”.

“You’d expect Treasury to be giving advice about a forum that’s about the economy, and what is happening in the lead-up,” the PM said.

“My Government is unashamedly an open government.”

He claimed the roundtable would be an “opportunity for people to advance their ideas, to advance policies”.

A leak revealing the Treasury pre-wrote a list of outcomes from Labor’s much-hyped economic roundtable is proof the “whole exercise is being choreographed”, Sussan Ley says.

The roundtable will not happen until next week, and yet a Treasury document showed pre-written advice for cabinet, the ABC reported on Thursday.

Among the recommendations was pausing the National Construction Code, which sets safety and environmental standards for buildings.

The code has been criticised, including by the Productivity Commission, for driving up the cost of construction by imposing overly strict regulations.

The leaked document also recommended a plan to roll out artificial intelligence to process building approvals.

Read the full story.

Anthony Albanese says he has confidence that The Arab League would aid the international push to achieve a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine in the Middle East.

The Prime Minister said that the group of 22 countries, whose citizens’ primary language is Arabic, have made “very clear statements” that they would step up in the region to ensure that Hamas plays no future role in the governing of a Palestinian state.

“The Arab countries in the region have stepped up,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

“Their statement was historic, that they made weeks ago, and people who followed this debate … know how significant that statement was.”

Anthony Albanese has delivered a scathing take down of his rival Sussan Ley after heated criticism for his decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

The PM dug up previous comments from the Opposition leader to read at a Brisbane press conference after she blasted Labor following Hamas welcoming its decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

“The Opposition Leader had this to say in the past, she supported Palestinian statehood,” he said.

“To quote her: because it will give heart to the ordinary people of the West Bank in Gaza.

“She went on to say: we must stand in solidarity with those seeking the non-violent path to secure Israel and an independent Palestine.

“She went on to say: this up to two generations of strife and war, are we going to admit to our children that their parents could not even find a part to peace or worse still - that we didn’t even try.

“What the international community is saying now is that there are three generations of people that have suffered from conflict in the Middle East, both Israeli and Palestinian.

“We need to find a path to peace and a path to peace is through a two-state solution.”

Anthony Albanese has hit out at the media for what he says is “publishing propaganda” from terrorist organisation Hamas after facing heated criticism for his decision to recognise Palestinian Statehood prior to prerequisites being achieved.

Speaking in Brisbane on Thursday, the PM was asked about being hailed a hero by Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef.

“They say that the alleged statement from the person yesterday was someone who’s been in prison in Israel … since October 2023 and has no means of communication,” Mr Albanese said.

“What that should be is a warning to the media of being very careful about the fact that Hamas will engage in propaganda.

“They shouldn’t repeat Hamas’ propaganda.”