Australian news and politics recap: February 10, 2025
Recap all the latest politics and breaking news from around Australia and the world for February 10, 2025.
Key Events
Albanese government to impose price caps on essential goods
Anthony Albanese will promise to impose price limits on 30 essential products sold in remote stores when he delivers the annual Closing the Gap statement to Parliament at lunchtime (AEDT) today.
Katina Curtis reports the move will lower costs of healthy foods and other vital goods. It comes after consumer group Choice found that, on average, groceries cost more than double what they did in capital cities.
The Government will also boost warehouse capacity to shorten freight distances and make supply chains for remote communities less vulnerable.
The problems with existing arrangements have been laid bare again this week by the flooding disaster in Queensland cutting off remote communities.
The most recent Productivity Commission update on Closing the Gap found just five of the 19 targets were on track to be met and progress was being made on another 11.
Another update on the targets will be released next month.
Mr Albanese will tell Parliament that although the stories of all Asutralians are intertwined, the Closing the Gap report “routinely lays bare there are still too many areas in which we are not together”.
“Ours is a remarkable country. A nation that is not an accident, or the mere jackpot of good luck,” he will say
“A nation lifted both by the vast sweep of our history, and the bright possibilities of its future. A great nation with an extraordinary potential to be even greater. And that is a story we will write together.”
‘We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse’
Donald Trump is about to sic Elon Musk on the Pentagon and says he expects he’ll find hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse.
“I’m going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. ... Then I’m going to go, go to the military. Let’s check the military,” Trump said in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News, an excerpt of which was aired on Sunday morning.
“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump said of the largest federal department.
The Pentagon’s budget is approaching $US1 ($A1.6) trillion per year.
Egypt calls emergency summit over Trump’s Gaza plan
Egypt has called an emergency Arab summit to discuss “new and dangerous developments” after US President Donald Trump announced his controversial plan to relocate Palestinians elsewhere and take over the Gaza Strip.
Trump’s suggestion, made at a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, infuriated the Arab world, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — key allies of Washington.
Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and much of the world have rejected it.
Both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II dismissed Trump’s call to resettle 1.8 million Palestinians and for the US to take ownership of the enclave, but Trump claims that they would eventually accept it.
A statement from Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it would host the Arab League summit in Cairo on February 27.
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