Anthony Albanese will spend most of the morning in Townsville, and he will be holding a press conference with the Queensland LNP premier, David Crisafulli a little later today.

He is in north Queensland for a flood tour and to discuss what additional support the federal government can provide.

He told the ABC this morning:

“The ADF are going to build a temporary structure over that bridge to make sure that that access to Ingham is available. At the moment it’s quite difficult to get food and supplies around some of the parts here in North Queensland. We’re using Australian Defence Force choppers to get those supplies in. In addition to that, shout out to Singapore. They’ve made a couple of Chinooks available that are here for training of their defence forces. Showing the sort of solidarity that we expect from our neighbours at this difficult time. Look, you can probably, I don’t know if you can hear the rain here, but it is torrential here in Townsville. These are tough times but North Queenslanders are tough people. My Government is on the ground providing whatever resources are required. We’ve had Senator McAllister, the Minister for Emergency Management, here working hand in hand with the Premier of Queensland, David Crisafulli. We met last night, I approved eight local government areas to get support for infrastructure build back last night. Individual support is being provided as well. We need to fix this bridge temporarily, but as well, I’ve discussed with the Premier, we need to build back better. This bridge, when you see the photos of it, clearly is too low and we are working on that and we’ll work together to achieve that.”

The bells are ringing, which means the parliament session is about to get underway.

It looks like being a bit of a messy day.

Francesca Albanese also said that while the US president was speaking nonsense, “at the same time, it cannot be ignored, because it’s absolutely, utterly unlawful”.

“This is a declaration that the United States intend to commit a crime of forced displacement of the Palestinian people, and also it’s an act of aggression.

When Donald Trump says, ‘we will own Gaza’, again, this is madness. We get it. But the implications is that the President of the United States says that its country is ready to commit an act of aggression. There are two crimes involved here, and this is for me, a wake up call, a wake up call for the 191 members of the United Nations so that, so that they get back to census and rediscover the importance of the international law as a framework to rule the international system, which is something that everyone has lost in the in the last years and possibly decades.“

We have had a little more time to go back and transcribe some more of what United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese had to say this morning on ABC radio RN Breakfast.

“President Trump has learned lessons from the Israelis. For 76 years they’ve tried to forcibly displace the Palestinians. And 56, years of trying to forcibly displace the Palestinians from the little that remains of Palestine, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Even 15 months of genocide in Gaza have not succeeded to forcibly displace the Palestinians in Gaza.

I would like the Australians to realize that the people in Gaza have remained after, under the carpet bombing of Israel, and not pushed toward the Rafah border, because this is the thing. This is what indigenous people do. They stick to the land, because the land is not where they live. The land is who they are. And this is why the Palestinians are not going anywhere.“

Dr Emma Shortis and Allan Behm conclude that even without the immediate prospect of a Palestinian state, ‘there is a global and regional imperative to stabilise the balance of interests across the Middle East. Consideration towards a way to support the creation of a supra-national forum, akin to ASEAN or even the European Union model, could promote long-term peace and prevent future destruction’.

And Australia has a role to play in supporting long term, genuine peacebuilding.

“In response to any conflict, Australia must maintain consistency between the democratic values we uphold at home as intrinsic to our identity, and those we seek to defend abroad,” Shortis said.

“We can not afford to ignore the consequences of the conflict in Gaza, which pose deep and lasting questions about our values.”

Behm says that defending the values Australia purports to hold, “are central to defending our interests, our identity, and our long-term international reputation”.

“Finding a conductive environment for a settlement between the parties will be difficult to achieve, but even if it failed, the world would not be worse off for trying.”

Dr Emma Shortis and Allan Behm, the director and advisor to the institute’s International and Security Affairs Program have written a report on what Australia’s response should be to what has been happening in Palestine, based on our obligations under international law and commitment to human rights,

Shortis and Behm say:

In light of these developments, and in response into United States President Donald Trump saying the US will “take over” the Gaza Strip and move Palestinian people elsewhere, Australia must act with urgency to protect its interests and uphold its values on the global stage by:

• Continuing to press for a sustained and lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
• Continuing to support Palestinian self-determination and the human rights of Palestinians.
• Increasing direct humanitarian aid to the region, and substantially contributing to relief through UNRWA.
• Affirming commitment to international law, including supporting the findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and encouraging the enforcement of International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants.
• Avoiding falling into the trap of the two-state solution paradigm, which lacks a clear path to Palestinian self-determination.

Rather than supporting temporary peacekeeping efforts, Australia must focus on securing long-term stability in the region.

Fostering dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians must be prioritised, facilitating an integrated economic, political, and security framework where both Jews and Palestinians can coexist equally.

The ABC’s Global Affairs editor, John Lyons, has raised another issue in Donald Trump’s illegal declaration the United States would ‘own’ Gaza in his latest analysis of the situation for the broadcaster:

“There are massive oil and gas reserves just off the coast of Gaza, which, if there was a Palestinian state, would would revert to Palestine, which clearly the Israelis have often talked about and thought about. There was a study done in 2019 saying that the amount of recoverable oil is estimated at 1.7 billion barrels, according to a major economic survey, and so that if Donald Trump’s plan went ahead, where the US Army essentially went in, seized Gaza and demolished what’s left of it, and then turned it into a sort of new Riviera on the Middle East, presumably America would and Israel would lay claim to that massive supply of oil and gas.”

The oil and gas reserves in Palestine’s waters are not often spoken about in mainstream media’s appraisal of what is happening in Gaza and why, so it is refreshing to hear an expert raise it so matter of factly.

ABC Gippsland has reported former Liberal MP turned independent Russell Broadbent WILL re-contest his seat of Monash at the next election.

Broadbent quit the Liberal party after he lost preselection in the seat he has held since 1990. There were questions over whether he would stand as an independent in the seat, but Broadbent has told local reporters he is all in.

I’ve never faced a political situation like we face now,” he said.

“The nation could be going into a situation with a hung parliament, and I believe all the experience that I have will make a difference, not only locally, but federally.”

Why is this important? Well, there is also a community independent running in the seat and so the Liberals are facing a contested vote from a few quarters now, including from a very popular local member who has refused to go quietly. That is going to impact on the Liberal vote, and Monash is one of the seats the Coalition thought it had in the bag. It will be an interesting contest.

Anthony Albanese is then asked whether he believes Australia will be a ‘target’ of Trump’s tariffs and says:

Well, you raise that issue, but there’s been two different positions in the last week. On Canada. And on tariffs. On Canada. And on tariffs. And that points towards the need to back, not comment on every statement that is made every day. I

I’ll tell you what my priority is today, it’s helping the people of helping the people of north Queensland, that’s where I can make a difference

For Australians, I think overwhelmingly that’s the focus of Australians. The press conference yesterday announcing $1.7 billion of additional funding for public hospitals. That’s what people are talking about around the water coolers, that can make a difference to them.

Dear Dolly we are at the ‘water cooler’ stage of the election cycle.

Asked the same question another way on ABC News Breakfast, Anthony Albanese says:

“I have said that I’m not going to respond to every statement, every day, that’s made. I will determine and my government will determine Australia’s position which has been Australia’s position which has been consistent for a long period of time. And that is consistent as well with what the world has said. And I might say as well, is consistent with a long standing US policy.

Asked if he believes Donald Trump is serious, Albanese says:

“I’m not going to run a commentary on the president’s motivations.“