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

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” while in Brisbane on Thursday, 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.

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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.”

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth says it is “not surprising” that Treasury would prepare advice for the government ahead of next week’s economic reform roundtable, after leaked departmental documents outlined possible outcomes from the talks.

The documents, obtained by the ABC, reportedly included suggestions such as a pause on the National Construction Code, a policy the Coalition supported before the election but which Labor had opposed.

Ms Rishworth has been pressed on whether the summit’s outcomes had already been set.

“It’s not surprising that Treasury would prepare advice to government and of course, in the lead-up to the productivity round-table, there has been ministers and other organisations holding a lot of discussions,” she told ABC News Breakfast on Thursday morning.

“This is a really important opportunities to talk about some of the long-term challenges.”

When asked directly if the National Construction Code would be paused: “I’m not going to get to the ins what will be considered by the productivity round-table and by other ministers and by Government. What I would say is that housing particular has been a big focus of our government,” she said.

Disturbing new details have surfaced following the horrific discovery of the bodies of 39-year-old pregnant woman Athena Georgopoulos and her 50-year-old partner Andrew Gunn in their Mount Waverley home.

A disagreement over a dog may have sparked the chilling double homicide, the Herald Sun reports.

Mr Gunn, known locally as “Morph,” was rarely seen without his beloved German Shepherd, Dragon, and according to locals, rising tensions between Mr Gunn and accused killer Ross Judd had begun to centre around the dog.

The couple’s bodies were found inside their Adrienne Crescent unit around 9.55pm on Monday.

Mr Gunn was allegedly decapitated with his head mounted on a spike, in what was described by police as an “unimaginably horrific crime scene”.

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Rising construction costs and rental increases may prove to be stumbling blocks for further rate cuts from the Reserve Bank.

The latest data from Cotality shows there are concerns for housing inflation and its knock-on effects off the back of rental re-acceleration picking up in state capitals for the first time in two years.

The capital city rental value index has increased by three per cent to July 2025, up from 2.7 per cent a month before, according to Cotality’s August monthly housing chart pack.

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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has intensified her criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plan to recognise Palestine at the United Nations next month, after Hamas publicly praised the move as showing political “courage.”

Ms Ley has argued the prospect of a lasting peace was getting “further and further away” by the day, and that conditions tied to the recognition, including removing Hamas from influence in Palestine, were almost “impossible” to meet.

“It doesn’t bring about a two-state solution, it doesn’t make the world a safer place,” Ms Ley told Nine.

“Anthony Albanese is making a real mess of this... On the same day, a listed terror organisation calls our Prime Minister a hero, while our closest ally, the US, says that these actions are going to make peace in the region less likely.

“Remember, the Prime Minister used justification for this decision by saying Hamas would not be involved? And I saw the Treasurer yesterday saying, oh, Hamas will have no role in a future Palestinian state. Really? As if we can control these things?

“The question now is for the prime minister to say, if you have made this conditional, and you keep saying you have, whereas it looks to me to be completely unconditional, what are you going to do now, especially now that Hamas has hailed you as a hero?”