Australian news and politics live: Albanese responds to ISIS bride fiasco as 30 reportedly turned away

The Reserve Bank has hinted at another rate rise this year because it is worried inflation will remain high until the middle of 2027, the minutes of its last meeting have revealed.

By a unanimous decision, the RBA on February 3 raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.85 per cent, which marked the first increase since November 2023.

It also reversed the effects of the Reserve Bank’s August rate cut after inflation soared to 3.8 per cent at the end of last year, or an annual pace well above the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target.

“Members noted that measures of longer-term inflation expectations appeared well anchored and consistent with central banks’ inflation targets. However, measures of inflation expectations at the two-year horizon had increased, most noticeably in Australia,” the minutes of that meeting released on Tuesday said.

Updated RBA forecasts, released early this month, showed headline and underlying inflation remaining above target until June 2027 and not returning to the mid-point of that band until late 2028.

The RBA noted financial markets were expecting another rate rise by the end of 2026.

Pauline Hanson has questioned how people can tell her “good Muslims” exist and said “their religion concerns me” during a contentious television interview, which prompted the host to push back on her claims.

The One Nation Leader claimed Australia could either “reap the rewards” of a tough border stance or “suffer as other countries have, like France and Denmark, England and Canada” in the controversial interview.

“I’ve got no time for radical Islam, their religion concerns me because what it says in the Quran,” she said on Sky News on Monday night.

“They hate Westerners, and that’s what it’s all about.

“You say there’s great Muslims out there, well, I’m sorry, how can you tell me there are good Muslims?”

Read the full story and watch the interview.

The Opposition is exploring a voucher-based childcare model that would enable parents to direct subsidies toward nannies and other flexible care arrangements.

The idea was outlined by Liberal Senator Leah Blyth in an opinion piece published in the Australian Financial Review, where she argued it could broaden choices rather than tie families to a “one-size-fits-all” centre-based model.

The South Australian senator, who previously held a junior portfolio of stronger families, proposed a means-tested voucher which could be applied to approved childcare centres, family day care, in-home care or blended arrangements.

​​Read more. ​​

Anthony Albanese has denied that his Government is assisting a group of ISIS brides and children back to Australia, after photos of the families emerged online.

“We won’t repatriate them,” Mr Albanese told ABC News Breakfast on Tuesday.

“My mother would have said, ‘If you make your bed, you lie in it’.

“These are people who went overseas supporting Islamic State and went there to provide support for people who basically want a caliphate.

“We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation. Australian law applies.

“There are obligations that Australian officials have, but we want to make it clear, as we have to the people involved, that if there are any breaches of the law, they will face the full force of the Australian law.”

A group of Australians, understood to be made up of 34 women and children, who were believed to have been released from a camp holding families of spectacled ISIS militants and headed to Australia, have reportedly been turned back.

On Monday, photos emerged of the ISIS brides and their families preparing to leave a detention camp in northeast Syria. It is now understood that Syrian authorities stopped the families from leaving.

A technical issue reportedly stopped the ISIS brides and children from leaving, something that local media suggest will be resolved before they resume their journey.