00:00I guess there's more pressure on the Albanese government to do so after we've seen both
00:07France and the UK indicating that it will recognise Palestinian statehood at the upcoming
00:13General Assembly meeting of the United Nations in September, unless there is a major shift
00:19in Israel's approach in Gaza.
00:21Today, Australia was a signatory on a joint statement, so joining 14 other nations such
00:28as Finland and Canada, one decrying the humanitarian crisis on the ground in Gaza, but simultaneously
00:35spelling out really an openness to this question of Palestinian statehood.
00:42It has been the Albanese government's position for about a year now that it is open to this
00:48question of Palestinian statehood at some point during the peace negotiation process, and
00:56it's been the long-standing position, a belief in two states, so Israelis and Palestinians
01:03living side by side.
01:06The coalition, though, hasn't been impressed with this response today.
01:10They say that it could be interpreted as rewarding Hamas, and as you'll see in the statement here
01:16from the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, she says that this question of recognising
01:22Palestinian statehood should come at the end of the peace negotiation process, not at the
01:27start or during it.
01:29The coalition has been consistently clear that there can be no recognition of a Palestinian
01:34state with Hamas still in control of Gaza, and Hamas can have no role in governing a Palestinian
01:40state.
01:41The Prime Minister has made it pretty clear that it's his contention, too, that Hamas could
01:45have no future role, so one of the conditions that he'd like to see if Palestinian recognition
01:53was given by Australia is the demilitarisation of Gaza as well as the democratisation of Gaza
02:01as well, and he certainly doesn't want to see any Hamas involvement whatsoever.
02:06When asked about the timing, about whether he will make a similar move to France and the
02:11UK, he says that he doesn't have a particular date in mind.
02:16What I've said is that it's not the timeline, it's not what we're looking at, what we're
02:22looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation
02:32of two states.
02:34I was in contact with Prime Minister Starmer overnight.
02:42I've said for a long time, my entire political life, I've said I support two states.
02:50The right of Israel to exist with insecure borders and the right of Palestinians to have
02:57their legitimate aspirations for their own state realised.
03:02That's my objective.
03:03Not making a statement, not winning a political point, but achieving that.
03:15Prime Minister speaking there earlier today.
03:17And Olivia on another subject now, and this is the government's social media ban for kids.
03:23What's happening with YouTube on that front?
03:25So, the government had initially said that YouTube would be exempt from its social media
03:31ban for under 16-year-olds because they saw it as an educational tool.
03:36But following advice from the eSafety Commissioner, the government has now said that YouTube will
03:42be one of the platforms that are captured by this ban when it comes into play towards the
03:49end of this year.
03:50So, today the major development has been that rules of how this ban is going to operate have
03:55been introduced to Parliament.
03:57It includes some details such as the platforms that won't be captured and those, for example,
04:03that are primarily focused on things such as gaming or health or education.
04:09It does come days, though, after Google, which is the parent company for YouTube, indicated
04:14that it might actually sue the Australian government if it includes YouTube in this ban.
04:21The Prime Minister today, though, is saying that he doesn't fear those threats and he's
04:26not going to be bullied by the social media giants.
04:30So, that was an interesting development today.
04:32And he also revealed that when he heads to New York in September of this year, that he'll
04:37be spruiking Australia's social media ban to other nations around the world.
04:44And he indicated that there's certainly been some interest or willingness in this proposal
04:49because it is a world first.
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