Australia officially recognised Palestine as a state during last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, and Albanese has expressed openness to Australia playing a role in a post-war peacekeeping effort in Gaza.
He has also backed the credentials of former UK Labour leader Tony Blair, who has been discussed as a possible administrator for Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas ends.
The Australia-UAE free trade agreement, Australia’s first trade deal in the Middle East, will take effect on October 1.
The agreement, struck in September 2024, will see almost all Australian exports to the UAE tariff-free once fully implemented, saving Australian exporters up to $204 million a year.
As he chases a free-trade deal with the European Union, Albanese also planned to visit the LuLu Hypermarket, a major supermarket chain and food supplier that is a key importer of Australian products.
Victoria Starmer, wife of the British PM, with Anthony Albanese’s fiancee Jodie Haydon and former prime minister Julia Gillard at the UK Labour Annual Conference in Liverpool.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Albanese had “crossed a line” by speaking at the UK Labour conference on the final day of a three-day visit to Britain.
“In fact, he didn’t just cross a line, he flew to the other side of the world to give a partisan political speech on behalf of a political party in another country,” she said.
“That is totally unacceptable.”
Albanese has said it was important for him to appear at the Labour conference, where he held brief meetings with the British defence minister and other senior figures.
