Australian news and politics live: Anthony Albanese says Australia won’t repatriate ISIS-linked children

The Aussie jobs market has posted a solid start to 2026, with the unemployment rate steady at 4.1 per cent in January — a number that will not ease the Reserve Bank’s concerns about inflation.

That was unchanged from December, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Employment lifted by 18,000 through the month, a little less than analysts had expected.

Some Australians who can’t find jobs appear to be leaving the market altogether, with a modest decline in the proportion of working age Australians in the labour force, down 0.6 percentage points from the peak in January 2025 to 66.7 per cent.

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Anthony Albanese has defended Nine News sports reporter Danika Mason after controversy over her awkward live cross from the Winter Olympics.

The reporter apologised to audiences for drinking before her live appearance from Livigno on the Today Show, which sparked widespread attention online.

Asked about it on radio on Thursday, Mr Albanese said he had watched the footage.

“I’m pro Danika. Good on her. She’s over in Italy… and she would have been tired. It’s the time difference, would have been having an impact. Nothing to see here,” he said.

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has called for a group of so-called ISIS brides stranded in Syria to be returned home to Australia declaring the government’s decision not to help as “pretty disgraceful”.

The cohort of 11 Australian families is attempting to leave a detention camp in the country’s northeast, but Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has slapped a Temporary Exclusion Order on one of the women.

Senator Faruqi has told the ABC any issues related to the women and children should be dealt with in the Australian legal system.

“These are Australian citizens. They need to be brought back and the concerns should be dealt with in Australia”.

“These people have been left to languish in refugee camps for too long. If there are concerns, they need to be brought back and these are people Australia can’t just turn into stateless people,” she says.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has continued her attack on Muslims, calling Islam a “religion of hate” and opposing Muslim women coming to Australia to have “child after child at taxpayers’ expense”.

Her latest comments follow days of criticism after the Queensland Senator questioned in a Sky News TV interview on Monday if “good Muslims” exist.

Senator Hanson undertook a mini media blitz on Tuesday and Wednesday where she made a partial apology but remained firm in her stance against radical Islam and tough borders.

But during a fiery interview on Sky News with Chris Kenny on Wednesday evening Senator Hanson further inflamed her previous commentary.

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Anthony Albanese is digging in on the Government’s position of not assisting with the repatriation of a cohort of ISIS-linked families back to Australia, claiming the parents were responsible for the “position” of their children.

The Prime Minister said it was not possible to only repatriate 23 children, without their mothers.

“I have contempt for their parents who have put these children in that situation,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday.

“We have a firm position, which is that the mothers in this case who made this decision to travel overseas against Australia’s national interest, are the responsible ones who’ve put their children in this position.”

“We can’t bring the children back without their mothers.”

Anthony Albanese has insisted that the Victorian Labor Premier should “absolutely keep her job” after the controversies around an estimated $15 billion bill for criminal activity in the CFMEU.

Jacinta Allan has refused to say when she found out the corruption watchdog did not have the power to investigate alleged criminality within the union linked to the state government’s Big Build infrastructure program.

While speaking on radio on Thursday morning, the PM said: “I think she’s a very good person”.

“She should absolutely keep her job. She has real compassion for people. I see her out and about with people,” he told NOVA.

“You look at the infrastructure built here in Victoria, the Metro, I’ve got to go on, that was all done with very little federal support for infrastructure here in Victoria.

“The head of the person who’s looking after construction, Mark Irving, is doing a good job here.”

Anthony Albanese has also been asked on the radio about the news that Donald Trump might be interested in a social media ban for kids.

Last year, Mr Trump threatened to put tariffs on countries that sought to impose tough regulations on American tech companies, but the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara, has now said he’s “very interested” in exploring a minimum age for social media users.

Mr Albanese said the report “shows that Australia can lead the world with reform”.

“I am so proud of what we are doing as a nation in leading the world. Our ban came into force on December 10. It is working across ten platforms. The feedback from parents is so positive and the feedback from young people as well,” he said.

Asked whether Mr Trump’s own social media network, Truth Social, had been captured by the ban, Mr Albanese said he wasn’t sure how many Australian kids would be using it.

New shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said it was his experience that Reserve Bank governors had to speak ‘in code’ when making public comments, particularly about public policy.

He noted that Phil Lowe’s position as a former governor meant he could be more plain spoken now.

“Michelle Bullock will be saying Phil Lowe’s language in code when she appears before Parliament and she’ll be making it very clear that the government is the key driver of inflation in Australia right now,” he told Sky News.

“Jim Chalmers is in denial about the demand he is creating, and he is the primary cause of the inflation bonfire that we have, and his only answer is to pour debt petrol on it.”

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has defended his senior minister, Jim Chalmers, after the Treasurer labelled former Reserve Bank governor Phil Lowe “a fairly persistent critic of the Labor Government” because it didn’t extend his term.

Mr Lowe told the AFR that government spending was making the economic situation worse and possibly condemning Australia to a future with high interest rates and low wages growth.

Dr Mulino pointed out the Treasurer had also said he respected Mr Lowe and respectfully disagreed with his analysis.

“To the extent that he’s making observations about public demand and government spending, I would disagree,” he said.

“I don’t think that you can read the RBA’s latest statement any other way than saying that it was an unexpected tick up in private demand. That was their focus, that that was the key finding.”

Current central bank governor Michelle Bullock told parliamentary committees after this month’s interest rise that both public and private spending were contributing to the jump in inflation.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says the Trump administration remains committed to the security of Taiwan, despite two major US security documents suggesting a tone shift with China.

The National Defence Strategy, recently issued by the Pentagon, said that the US did not seek to dominate, humiliate, strangle, contain or constrain China. It said that the US wanted a stable and decent peace instead.

In her exclusive story, Latika M Bourke asked Mr Marles if he believed the new language constituted a retreat by the Trump administration in the United States’ stance on Taiwan.

He responded: “I don’t, no.”

Meanwhile, Australia has asked China for “strategic reassurance” about why it was embarking on a huge military build-up.

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