Cummins meets PM but Usman’s Gaza catch up is cancelled

PL on cricketers in Canberra this week

Usman Khawaja was keen to lobby PM on the Palestine issue

It was, with both Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja heading to Canberra for meetings with the Prime Minister and members of the government, shaping up to be an interesting week for those interested in the intersection of sport, politics and social issues.

Then Anthony Albanese cancelled Thursday morning’s meeting with the opening batsman and human rights campaigner.

Earlier in the week, Khawaja told the ABC he would lobby to have Australia take a stronger stance against Israel’s destruction of Gaza and ongoing slaughter of the Palestinian people.

“They have been condemning what Israel has been doing, how they have been doing it over the last few months,” he told te ABC. “It's not me, they've been saying it. Senator Penny Wong has been going out and saying she does not agree, she's been using very, very harsh words. But obviously the harsh words are making no impact. Israel don't care what you say. Someone's got to make a stand and at some stage the action has to match the rhetoric and it has not done that so far.”

The PM’s office said he had been forced to skip the meeting because of a change in schedule.

Khawaja was, naturally, disappointed at the turn of events, but travelled to Canberra anyway as he had a round table with independent MP, David Pocock.

“I’m hoping it was just a scheduling conflict,” Khawaja said. “I want to be honest, I was a little bit bummed by it. I voted for Labor at the last election, I actually have a lot of love for the Prime Minister. I actually wanted to go up and shake his hand and say ‘I want to congratulate you, for the first time in my life someone is recognising the Palestinians as people and recognising the state of Palestine.”