Month: July 2025

The Albanese Government’s decision to join 27 other nations in condemning Israel’s war against Hamas is a disgraceful betrayal of moral clarity and national integrity, Family First said today.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s assertion that Israel’s actions are “indefensible” plays straight into the hands of Islamic terrorists who started the war by murdering, raping and kidnapping innocent Israeli civilians on October 7. Hamas keeps the war alive by holding hostages and continuing to use its own innocent civilians as human shields.

“There would be no war, no starvation, no rubble, no civilian deaths if Hamas laid down its weapons and released the hostages,” Family First National Director Lyle Shelton said. “Instead, Labor has chosen to vilify the only democracy in the Middle East and lend legitimacy to the terrorist regime responsible for this horror.”

“That the Australian Government’s foreign policy is now aligned with the demands of an Islamic death cult should be a source of deep national shame. Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organisation — yet Labor is siding with it over Israel, the victims, and the cause of civilisation itself. This sends a chilling message to the world about where Australia now stands,” Shelton said.

New revelations reported in The Wall Street Journal confirm what Israel and others have long warned: Hamas is obstructing aid delivery in Gaza so it can control the distribution, enrich itself and feed its fighters. According to Arab mediators, Hamas is demanding exclusive control over all humanitarian aid through agencies it dominates — a move designed to extend its power, not relieve suffering.

Israel has rightly resisted returning aid control to the UN’s Relief and Works Agency, after evidence emerged that some UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 massacre. Hamas has systematically looted, taxed and re-sold aid intended for the people of Gaza, turning humanitarian relief into a war profiteering operation.

“If Hamas weren’t pilfering aid and using it to fund its Islamic terrorist rapist murderers and hostage takers, no one would be starving or being killed at aid distribution points,” Shelton said. “Without Islamic terrorism, Gaza could be rebuilt and Jews and Palestinians could live in peace. The blame for every civilian death lies squarely with Hamas.

“It would be good is Prime Minister Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Tony Burke understood this.”

The United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, rightly called the 28-nation statement, including Australia’s, “disgusting” — a shocking indictment of those who pressure Israel while Hamas rejects every ceasefire offer and continues to use civilians as human shields.

Family First stands with Israel’s right to defend itself and calls on the Albanese Government to reverse its appeasement of terrorism. Australia should not reward evil. Hamas must be defeated, and the hostages freed.

Australia has hosted the Australia Group plenary meeting in Sydney to commemorate forty years working together to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

Established under the Hawke Government in 1985, the Australia Group is a part of Labor’s proud legacy in promoting the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Australia convened the first meeting of the group following Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War, and we continue to serve as permanent chair and secretariat.

The Australia Group has expanded from 15 countries in 1985 to 42 countries and the European Union today. For 40 years, its work has been at the forefront of global efforts to counter the development and use of chemical and biological warfare by harmonising export controls and enhancing cooperation.

Through Australia’s leadership of the group, we have played a pivotal role in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

At a time of rising global tensions and increasingly complex challenges, the Australia Group remains responsive to dynamic international events and technological developments to ensure it remains ahead of emerging proliferation threats.

The Australia Group’s publicly available common control lists and guidelines set the global benchmark for chemical and biological precursor export controls.

The Australia Group has released a joint statement to commemorate the 40-year anniversary. More information about the Australia Group is available on its website.

We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now.

The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

The hostages cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 continue to suffer terribly. We condemn their continued detention and call for their immediate and unconditional release. A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.

We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively.

We call on all parties to protect civilians and uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law. Proposals to remove the Palestinian population into a “humanitarian city” are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.

We strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The E1 settlement plan announced by Israel’s Civil Administration, if implemented, would divide a Palestinian state in two, marking a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution. Meanwhile, settlement building across the West Bank including East Jerusalem has accelerated while settler violence against Palestinians has soared. This must stop.

We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this.

We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region.

This statement has been signed by:

• The Foreign Ministers of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK
• The EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management

Analysis conducted by the Parliamentary Library shows that Labor’s much-touted 20% student-debt cut collapses to a mere 7.9% once indexation since their election in 2022 is accounted for. In other words, the impact of the 20% student debt cut is severely diminished by indexation, even after the Government’s changes to indexation by tying it to the lesser of WPI or CPI.

For a student with a $30,000 student debt in 2022 when the Albanese government came to power, after Labor’s indexation tweaks and the promised 20% debt cut, they will end up with a debt of $27,619 – only 7.9% below what they began with.

The Greens have relentlessly pushed the Albanese Government to deliver desperately needed student debt relief since they came to power, and the pressure has worked in securing the changes to indexation as well as recent commitments to raise the minimum repayment income, introduce a marginal repayment system and cut student debt.

However, Labor’s plans will mean nothing for young people starting a $50,000 arts degree today, whose debt will grow every year due to indexation and take a lifetime to pay off. And effectively only a 7.9% one-off reduction in debt doesn’t even touch the sides of this growing burden.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson on Higher Education:

“Since the Labor government was elected, an increase in student debt because of indexation means that the promise of 20% reduction effectively shrinks to just 7.9%.

“Labor crowing about a small one-off debt reduction won’t fix the enormous burden of uni fees or student debt that keeps growing every year.

“Of course any student debt relief is better than none, but we are demanding all student debt be wiped and a return to free uni and TAFE, funded by taxing big corporations to pay their fair share.

“In opposition, Labor spoke a big game against the Morrison Government’s fee hikes for degrees like arts, business and law. In Government, they’ve shown their true colours, smashing students with $50,000 arts degrees that grow every year and take a lifetime to pay off.

“If the Labor government is serious about providing relief to students, scrapping the fee hikes of the failed job-ready graduates scheme should be a matter of urgency.

“Wiping all student debt and making Uni free is not radical, it’s common sense. Other countries do it, Australia used to do it. Free university existed in this country and was dismantled by the very party which now expects applause for a paltry repair job.”

The CGT discount needs to be scrapped if Australia has any chance of addressing the housing crisis, the Greens say.

Lines attributable to Senator Nick McKim, Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson:

“The CGT discount is a gift to wealthy investors that’s helped turn housing into a speculative asset, rather than a human right.”

“It’s one of the most destructive tax concessions in the country. It drives up prices, fuels inequality, and helps to shut an entire generation out of home ownership.”

“Labor knows this tax break is contributing to the housing crisis, but they’re too scared to stand up to the property lobby and their big donor mates.”

Senator Barbara Pocock, Greens housing spokesperson:

“If the Government genuinely wants to fix the housing crisis, scrapping the capital gains tax is an essential and long overdue reform.”

“Let’s be clear – this is a tax break for wealthy property investors, a tax break which comes at a cost to first home buyers and owner occupiers. This is also a tax break that increases levels of homelessness, which have increased by 10 percent under this government since it was elected in 2022.”

“Massive tax breaks for wealthy property investors are cooking our housing system. Instead of everyone having a roof over their head, houses have become an investment asset class – which fuels intergenerational inequality.”

“Instead of funding tax breaks for rich property investors, this government could be redirecting funds to building more public and affordable housing.”

“Unless the Government makes the necessary reforms to the tax concessions for property investors, we’ll continue to see house prices rise and rents spiral. The Greens stand ready to work with Labor to action this urgent reform.”