What we learned today, Tuesday 23 September
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here are the day’s main stories:
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, addresses a UN conference on the government’s formal recognition of Palestine, but again fails to meet the US president, Donald Trump. The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, says he has “no doubt” there will be such a meeting “in the near future”;
The federal opposition dug in on criticism of Australia’s decision to recognise Palestine as a sovereign nation and accused Albanese of flawed comparisons with Jewish history;
Australia’s medicines regulator and chief doctor reject US claims linking the use of paracetamol in pregnancy to autism and ADHD;
The Victorian parliament’s new integrity watchdog has botched its first investigation – into the manure dumped out the front of premier Jacinta Allan’s office – by issuing defective notices;
A man accused of terrorising women in the early 1990s across Sydney, who was dubbed the Night Stalker, has pleaded guilty to 13 charges;
A NSW police officer is charged with assaulting Hannah Thomas during a pro-Palestine protest in June;
Tasmanian police have formally suspended a search for a light plane that went missing last month in the state with two people on board; and
Victoria police have charged an eighth teenager with murder after the stabbing deaths of 15-year-old Dau Akueng and 12-year-old Chol Achiek in Cobblebank in Melbourne’s west earlier this month.
We will see you again for more news tomorrow.
Updated
Matt Thistlethwaite: Hamas does not want two states
The assistant foreign minister says the government has gone “directly against” what Hamas wants by recognising Palestinian statehood.
Speaking with the ABC a short time ago, Thistlethwaite said that as part of a coalition of nations, Australia could make a big impact.
That is why the two-state solution conference at the United Nations in New York is all about: joining 150 other nations to say that enough is enough. There is a humanitarian catastrophe happening in Gaza, people are being denied food and water and medical supplies. Aid workers have been at killed and the hostages, nearly two years on, have not been released.
He said the Albanese government had “gone further than any other Australian government has ever gone on it recognition of Palestine” and that it was “using this as a means to try and bring this conflict to an end”.
In response to claims the recognition was a reward to Hamas, he said:
Hamas do not want this, they have always said they do not want two states. We are going directly against what they want.
He said opposition leader Sussan Ley’s letter to the Republicans was “more about her warding off the challenge that has come to her from the right wing hawks in her party” than it was about “good Australian foreign policy”.
For them to try and undermine the position of the Prime Minister and the nation of Australia, at an international forum like the United Nations, is a disgrace. I think it says everything about the quality of her leadership.
Read more here:
Updated
