Australia politics LIVE: Israeli ambassador addresses National Press Club; question time returns

Question time is set to resume in the House of Representatives at 2pm, AEDT.

Watch live below.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has provided a state-by-state breakdown of the number of petrol stations running low on supply. Here’s the data he provided:

• NSW: 247 stations are without diesel, 61 have no stock at all
• Victoria: 77 stations are without diesel, 39 have no unleaded fuel
• SA: 20 stations have no diesel, 13 are without unleaded
• WA: 18 stations have no diesel, 14 are without unleaded
• Tasmania: eight have no diesel, 15 are without unleaded
• NT: five stations have no diesel
• ACT: five stations have no diesel, two are without unleaded

Question time has begun in the House of Representatives with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of having abdicated his leadership during the fuel crisis:

The government blamed Australians for buying fuel, then finally declared a national fuel crisis. The government said the fuel crisis was not a supply problem, and then rushed through emergency supply laws.

The government said cutting the fuel excise was a thought bubble, and then adopted our fuel tax cut. How can Australians have any confidence in the prime minister’s leadership through this crisis, when his position changes every day?”

The opposition offered a similar attack line yesterday when it repeatedly said the prime minister was “the last to lead in a crisis”.

Albanese backed his government’s response, saying:

There are challenges ahead of us, and no government can just eliminate all of the pressure which is there. What we can do is act in an orderly, responsible way, not try to create issues, but try to create an appropriate response.”

Question time is set to resume in the House of Representatives at 2pm, AEDT.

Watch live below.

The Israeli ambassador to Australia says his country should be “commended” for the “low number of uninvolved civilians that were actually killed” in Gaza since October 7, 2023, arguing there is no genocide taking place.

Hillel Newman, addressing the National Press Club, rejected a figure of 70,000 dead in the region, saying it was a number provided by Hamas:

If you take into consideration natural deaths, distinction of those that were combatants and those [who were] not combatants, we know more or less the number of combatants that have been killed. You take into consideration those that were killed by Palestinian fire, and … in the end you come to a ratio of one to 1.5. That’s the lowest ratio of civilian ... casualties in warfare, in urban warfare.

There was no genocide in Gaza. The numbers do not depict what people on the streets think because they don’t look into the numbers and then understand the meaning of the numbers. The ratio [of civilian to combatant casulaties] in the end is the lowest in urban warfare, and therefore, in many ways, Israel should be commended for the low number of uninvolved civilians that were actually killed.”

A United Nations commission of inquiry in September last year found that Israel had committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, accusing the nation of having committed four genocidal acts, “namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births”.

Israel has the right to make laws on capital punishment, the country’s ambassador to Australia says, following the passage of laws overnight approving the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis.

“Just like in the United States, in Japan and in India, which have capital punishment, Israel has the right, as a sovereign state, to decide … capital punishment,” Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman told the National Press Club this afternoon.

The passage of the bill on Monday, Israeli time, marked the culmination of a years-long drive by the far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offences against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Knesset to vote for the bill in person.

The law makes death by hanging the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of nationalistic killings. It also gives Israeli courts the option of imposing the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted on similar charges – language that legal experts say effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has told the Labor caucus that Australia opposes the death penalty “in all instances”, after Israel passed laws that made the default punishment for a Palestinian convicted of murdering an Israeli death by hanging.

Wong was asked about Israel’s new laws, which have been widely condemned by the international community and rights groups as discriminatory and inhumane, during the Labor caucus meeting today.

She pointed to a joint statement Australia signed alongside France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom that opposed the measure.

“We are particularly worried about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill,” that statement said.

“The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles.”

The Israeli ambassador to Australia says his country has never unjustly targeted journalists in conflict and that terrorists have pretended to be journalists to protect themselves, during an address to the National Press Club in Canberra.

“There is a campaign against Israel about the amount of journalists that have been killed and whether they’ve been intentionally killed. So let’s state the fact: Israel has never targeted a journalist just for being a journalist,” Hillel Newman said.

“The truth behind it is that Hamas and Hezbollah [disguise] themselves as press and remain terrorist operatives. I can send to any journalist who is interested, lists of dozens of journalists, so-called journalists, who were actually, or who were, operatives of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The International Federation of Journalists has reported that 261 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The Israeli ambassador to Australia says “removing” Iran and its proxies is the “ultimate remedy” to maintaining energy and supply chain security in the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Australian government has joined others in the international community in condemning Tehran’s actions aimed at closing the Strait of Hormuz and intentionally creating global instability,” Hillel Newman told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“Efforts are being extended to make sure that the energy concerns are temporary and minimal, diversifying energy sources, opening new channels of supply chains and deterring future attacks in the Strait. The ultimate remedy, though, is removing the ultimate threat: Iran and its proxies.”

Newman was announced as Israel’s ambassador to Australia earlier this month, after serving in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The Coalition has come out swinging against the possibility of more federal parliamentarians.

A proposal to increase the size of parliament would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor told reporters.

Here’s a taste of what Taylor had to say to the parliamentary press gallery earlier today:

This … is not what we need right now.

Australians are in a cost-of-living crisis. They’re in a fuel crisis.

The priority of this government, clearly, is to increase the size of the parliament.

Nationals leader Matt Canavan added that the prime minister needed to “come clean” with the Australian people.

Paul Sakkal revealed in February that the Albanese government was discussing plans to increase the number of federal politicians by more than 40 because Australia’s population has almost doubled since 1984 and some electorates are bigger than many countries.

Drivers should not expect to see immediate cuts to their petrol bill, with the government’s halving of the fuel excise to take up to a fortnight to flow through to bowsers, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said.

Speaking at a press conference this morning – after the government yesterday announced a three-month 26 cent reduction in petrol taxes per litre – Chalmers said:

It’s really important to remember that the excise cut is levied to or applied to wholesale fuel sales, so the full 26 cents won’t show up at 12.01 tonight.

It is about the replenishing of the stocks in the tanks, because it’s applied to the wholesale. Obviously, the fuel in the tanks right now has been purchased at the higher rate. And so people should expect it would take, you know, somewhere between maybe one and two weeks for the full benefit of the excise to flow through.”

Chalmers added that it was important to “manage expectations” of motorists who want to see an immediate discount.

He said that the consumer watchdog would continue to monitor price gouging.