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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Sam Dover.
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Foreign minister Penny Wong is set to begin her tour of the Middle East as part of Australia's strategy to help end the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The foreign minister has left today to travel to Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates over the week.
Senator Wong will meet with the Israeli families of hostages and survivors of Hamas' October 7 attacks, as well as Palestinians impacted by Israeli settler violence in the Palestinian West Bank.
Speaking before her departure, Minister Wong avoided a question about why she was not visiting the sites of massacres perpetrated by Hamas militants in southern Israel.
Senator Wong says she will balance Australia's condemnation of Hamas' attack with calls for Israel to respect international law amid record high numbers of civilian deaths in Gaza.
"Obviously this is a conflict which is has been devastating and tragic. And so many Australians with different perspectives are deeply worried about it. What I would say to Australians is we are not a central player in this, but we have a respected voice and we will be using it to advocate. Ultimately, the pathway out of the conflict is something that must be found by the parties to that conflict."
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says high income Australians will still receive tax cuts, while he says his government remains committed to addressing inequality.
The prime minister has confirmed that the controversial stage three tax cuts, which benefit high income earners, will come into effect from July 1.
The package, a policy of the former Morrison government, will abolish 32.5 per cent and 37 per cent tax brackets and bring in a single 30 per cent bracket for incomes between $45,000 and $200,000.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce told Channel 7's Sunrise that the stage three tax cuts should go ahead.
"The stage three tax cuts is about giving some of your money back to you. It's very easy to get a surplus, if I take some of your skyrocket and put it back in the government's treasury bucket, and we've got to start giving this money back."
Mr Albanese has told ABC News that Labor will continue to look at other measures to help struggling Australians.
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And in tennis, Alex de Minaur is preparing for a tough battle against Milos Raonic in his opening match of the Australian Open.
Australia's World Number 10 faces off against the former-world-number-three Canadian at Rod Laver arena this evening.
De Minaur has had a strong start to the year including a defeat of world number one Novak Djokovic at the United Cup, and a win over Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz in a charity match last week.
But despite being sidelined for almost two years with a catalogue of injuries, Raonic retains an incredibly powerful serve that could easily steal the match away from the Australian star.
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I'm Sam Dover. This is SBS News in Easy English.
