It was day two of parliament sitting in Canberra and the focus was largely domestic. Our government and leaders acknowledged the extraordinary developments in Washington.
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00:00Ruby, good afternoon. Well, the Prime Minister has largely sidestepped these comments by
00:06the US President saying he's not going to give a daily running commentary on the remarks
00:11made by Donald Trump. Now, despite multiple questions put to the Prime Minister specifically
00:18on those remarks made by Mr Trump, the declaration that he intends to forcibly relocate the people
00:24of Gaza and what he says, quote, level the site, Anthony Albanese instead stressed Australia,
00:31the Australian government's position of supporting a two state solution and also noting that
00:36it is a bipartisan position in Australia.
00:40Australia's position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, and it
00:45was 10 years ago, and it was under the Howard government. The Australian government support
00:54and a bipartisan basis, a two state solution in the Middle East.
00:59Now the Prime Minister was also asked about whether Australia would consider in the international
01:04effort of eventually rebuilding Gaza. Anthony Albanese says there has been no such request
01:10made at this time. We have also heard from the Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, who is a
01:17former ambassador to Israel. He is somewhat more cautious about these remarks, saying
01:23that they shouldn't be taken so literally.
01:26What he said about US ownership or control of Gaza, at the moment, I think we would need
01:34to see more details about what he has in mind. But something Trump's own team often says
01:39about him is take him seriously, but don't necessarily take him literally. And that would
01:43be the sort of mantra I'd adopt here.
01:45The Greens, though, have been scathing of these comments made by the US President. Greens
01:51leader Adam Bandt says that they should be taken literally and the government should
01:56denounce these comments.
01:59This is the end of international law. This is the United States talking about taking
02:06over another country. That is what the Australian government needs to reject and say also that
02:15Australia will play no part in this decision.
02:21And Pablo, obviously the US has really dominated the day's news, but it's the second parliamentary
02:25sitting day of the year. What else was on the agenda today?
02:28Well, the Prime Minister initially called this press conference today to speak about
02:33a major funding announcement for the nation's public hospitals, announcing that the Albanese
02:38government would spend an extra $1.7 billion for the nation's public hospitals and health
02:44services across the country.
02:47Now, the Prime Minister made the announcement with the health minister, Mark Butler, saying
02:51that the money will go towards help cutting ambulance ramping and waiting times in emergency
02:57departments, which have been an ongoing issue for the whole hospital system around the nation.
03:04The additional funding will boost the Commonwealth's contribution to public hospitals by 12 per
03:10cent.
03:11In question time today, while the government was keen to push this announcement forward,
03:17the Prime Minister was instead quizzed by the opposition on when he was first told by
03:22police that they were investigating the discovery of a caravan allegedly packed with explosives
03:28and found with anti-Semitic notes in it in Sydney's northwest.
03:34The Prime Minister has maintained that it is appropriate for him not to comment specifically
03:39on what he calls operational matters.
03:42We know that the New South Wales Premier, Chris Mins, found out about this a day after
03:47the discovery, the Prime Minister, though, standing his ground.