TRANSCRIPT:
- Israel offers 48 hours and a new escape route for civilians in Gaza City;
- Australia's first Indigenous parliamentarian honoured in Canberra;
- Running sensation Gout Gout makes the next round at the world championships.
A group of Labor branches have declared their support for sanctions against Israel following a UN finding of genocide in Gaza.
Australia's government is yet to accept the UN committee of inquiry’s headline conclusion, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong stopping short of that finding and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yet to comment while on a three-day visit to Papua New Guinea.
But Labor Friends of Palestine spokesperson Peter Moss says more than 100 party branches have passed motions calling for sanctions against Israel.
He says the report confirms the verdict of genocide that has been widely accepted by human rights experts and international aid organisations.
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Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli military has confirmed it's opening an additional route for 48 hours that they say Palestinian civilians can use to leave Gaza City.
Hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering in the city and many are reluctant to follow Israel's orders to move south because of the dangers along the way, dire conditions, a lack of food in the southern area and fear of permanent displacement.
The news comes as another march through Jerusalem has been conducted by Israelis demanding an end to the war.
A professor who took part in the march, Aviva Mimouni Bloch, says the war has become pointless.
"Our soldiers are going for a war that has no reason anymore. We must debate, and find an end. That must be through talks."
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Thai police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Cambodian civilians in a disputed border area, in what is the most significant escalation since a deadly five-day conflict in July.
The clash took place at a disputed frontier settlement which Thailand says is part of its Ban Nong Ya Kaew village in Sa Kaeo province but Cambodia says is part of Prey Chan village in Bantheay Meanchey province.
Thai authorities erected barbed wire fences in the area last month and for weeks there have been protests by civilians from both sides of the border.
Cambodian authorities say at least 23 of their citizens were injured in the incident, while Thailand's military says an unspecified number of Thai officials also sustained injuries.
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The federal Liberal leader has offered an olive branch to MPs within her party that have demanded she walk away from Australia’s climate targets.
Liberal infighting over climate policy has reignited this week as frontbencher Andrew Hastie vowed to move to the backbench if the coalition held firm to the bipartisan position of net zero emissions by 2050.
Sussan Ley has now suggested a shift from the party's long-held net zero position could be on the cards.
She says she holds misgivings with the position because of cost.
”My colleagues and I agree wholeheartedly, which is what I’ve sad and others have sad that we will not have net zero at any cost, because the cost can be too high. And right now, it looks like the cost is too high when you consider what this government is about to do.”
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The Prime Minister has declared there's no need to view the delayed sign-off on a major defence pact between Australia and Papua New Guinea as a failure.
Anthony Albanese has now left Port Moresby without the hoped-for defence pact after the PNG government's cabinet didn't sign off on the landmark agreement in time.
It marks the second time in as many weeks that Mr Albanese has failed to wrap up an actively promoted security deal with a Pacific nation amid geostrategic competition, primarily China.
But he has rejected the Coalition’s assessment that the non-signing is an embarrassment for the government.
"(It's) very positive. There is no downside whatsoever. This is all upside for Australia and for Papua New Guinea."
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The New South Wales government has proposed new legislation to overhaul planning laws in the state.
Under the proposal, councils will get only 10 days to dispute small variations of development applications that normally take months to be processed.
In addition, an alternative approval body panel will be made permanent and 16-year-old regional planning panels will be thrown on the scrap heap.
Premier Chris Minns is touting the ambitious overhaul as the biggest reform to planning and housing in the state's history.
”We’ve been saying for a long time that the planning system is not fit for purpose any longer. It competes against itself, disincentivises people who put in capital into the system in building homes for the future, and the prove is in the proving, we are seeing 40,000 young people up and leave Sydney every 12 months.”
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Australia’s first Indigenous parliamentarian, Neville Bonner, has been honoured with a bronze sculpture in Canberra.
The statue has been unveiled outside Old Parliament House depicting Bonner standing with his totem, Kabul the carpet snake.
Bonner first came to Parliament in 1971 when he was appointed to fill a Queensland Senate vacancy – but was then elected four more times. [[in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1980]]
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To sport,
Australian teenage sensation Gout Gout has made a successful debut at the World athletics championships in Tokyo.
The 17-year-old has entered the second round of the men’s 200 metre event, qualifiying for the semi-final.
Gout will probably need to dip under the 20-second barrier - something no Australian has done before - if he's to advance to Friday's final.
