Sophie Scamps asks Anthony Albanese:

I have been swamped by electorate people writing to me of their horror of the atrocities occurring in Gaza. I shares they distress and their calls forker Australia to use all diplomatic levers to end these atrocity the. France will soon join 147 nations in recognising Palestine as a state and a step towards As we witness the mass starvation and the killing of so many civilians and children in Gaza, when will Australia be prepared to recognise Palestine as a state?

Albanese:

I thank the member for Mackellar for her question, and I share the distress that people around the world would feel when they look at young Mohammed, a one-year-old. He is not a threat to the state of Israel nor is he someone who can be seen to be a fighter for Hamas. He’s a young child who deserves to be treated appropriately.

And the position of the Australian government is very clear. That every innocent life matters. Every Israeli and every Palestinian. This conflict has stolen far too many innocent lives, tens of thousands of civilians are dead, children are starving.

Gaza’s in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe. And Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilian, including children seeking access to water and food, cannot be defended nor can it be ignored. We have called upon Israel to comply immediately with its obligations under international law.

We have also unequivocally condemned Hamas and said it can play no role whatsoever in the future state of Palestine and hostages must be released immediately. I make three points about recognition.

The first is that my government is committed to a two-state solution. Israel and Palestine. That has been a bipartisan position for a long period of time. Australia played a role in the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and it’s something we should be proud of.

But what was envisaged was two states, not one.

The second point I’d make is that the foreign minister announced last year na recognition of a Palestinian state by Australia might occur before the finalisation of a peace process. The third point is that the timing of a decision to recognise the state of Palestine will be determined by whether that decision advances the realisation of that objective. It must be more than a gesture. It must be something that’s a part of a moving forward. Australia will make that decision as a sovereign state. We obviously are in discussions with other countries as well going forward. We do that because the reason why a two-state solution remains the goal of the international community is because a just and lasting peace depends upon it.

Prime Minister John Howard said that in 2006. That there can be no solution to the Middle East without solving the Palestinian question, and that means not just Israel’s right to live in peace and security and to defend itself. It also means that the realisation of the legitimate aspiration of the Palestinian people to live in their own state, with peace and security and the prospect of prosperity, as well.