Albanese attends UN General Assembly opening, meets with Korean President Lee Jae Myung

On the floor of the iconic United Nations General Assembly hall, the world's most powerful people and their aides are brought to attention by a man carving his through the crowd enthusiastically waving a brass handbell above his head.

The opening session of the 81st General Assembly has begun — the largest gathering of leaders in one place set up to maintain and enforce international rules in the aftermath of World War Two. In 2026, it's under serious strain from superpowers re-writing the rules in their favour.

From the gallery overlooking the circular hall — for the journalists (including this correspondent) lucky enough to have secured a ticket — it’s people watching on steroids.

Anthony Albanese shaking hands with Canada’s Mark Carney before Julie Bishop — former foreign minister and now Special Envoy on Myanmar — makes a surprise appearance and sidles up beside him for a chat.

Once seated (on the same table as Austria and two rows behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine), Albanese and Penny Wong are joined by Australia’s Ambassador to the UN James Larsson, Ambassador to the US Greg Moriarty, the PM’s international advisor Rod Hilton and DFAT boss Jan Adams.

Patiently listening to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ defiant final address (for which he was given a standing ovation), and then Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, (who gets top billing due to long standing tradition). Before the man everyone is here for — Donald Trump — enters the room.

90 minutes late, he walks straight up to the rostrum. And now, the show begins.

Reporting by pool reporter Katina Curtis in New York.

Anthony Albanese has met Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the Korean Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

The meeting was preceded by an extended negotiation between officials over whether the leaders would shake hands twice or once for media and protocol purposes.

Lee greeted Albanese by asking when he had arrived in New York.

Speaking via a translator, Lee then noted that due to the ongoing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, Korea had faced "various challenges" with energy supply chain disruptions.

"But thanks to the help and cooperation of Australia, our energy market has been stabilised," he said.

Albanese thanked him for the warm welcome and said Australia and Korea were "great friends" who shared a similar world view of support for multilateral institutions, security and stability.

"We rely upon each other as well for economic security. Particularly, we regard the role that we play in supplying secure energy to Korea as being very important," he said.

Albanese ended his remarks by saying he looked forward to welcoming Lee to Australia early next year.

They shook hands twice.

Hi friends. Welcome to our politics live blog. I'm Courtney Gould from the ABC's Parliament House team, here to guide you through the day.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the opening of the UN General Assembly overnight. On the sidelines, he just delivered a speech pushing Australia's role as a "world leader" on digital regulation. He's also met with several world leaders. More on that shortly.

Back at home, expect more reaction to the reignition of the superannuation battle this morning following Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg floating the possibility of people being able to use retirement savings as collateral for a mortgage.

It's all happening, so let's just jump in.

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