Australian news and politics recap: All the big news stories from February 21, 2025

Peter Dutton’s press conference has wrapped up now, but it’s worth mentioning he was asked about the grim controversy surrounding Hamas releasing a body that wasn’t in fact that of an Israeli hostage.

“I just think this is a reminder to all Australians how barbaric Hamas is,” he said.

“They’re a listed terrorist organisation, and they are evil to the core. And all of those people who suggested that we should be negotiating with Hamas and that we should be granting them statehood and nation status realise how wrong they must have been, how wrong they obviously are.

“It is horrific for any family to imagine their children being taken in the first place.

“But for the barbarity to continue, it just shows how depraved they are, and it shows how important it is for us to stand up with friends and allies who share our values and our perspective on life.”

The Opposition Leader clearly he thinks he’s onto a winner in comparing Albo to Gough. Here he is responding to a question about Rex Airlines.

“If the Prime Minister proposes to own an airline and a casino and a steelworks and a glass manufacturer, he should be very frank with the Australian people because of this comes at a cost and when people like Anthony Albanese run out of their own money, they come after yours,” he said.

“Gough Whitlam wrecked the economy and Anthony Albanese is in the process of wrecking the economy.”

Mr Dutton went on to blame Labor’s energy police for driving up prices, before walking it back slightly and conceding it was partly due to inflation.

“(Labor’s) energy policy is a disaster for the economy and has destroyed the economy and is driving up prices,” he said.

“When you go to the supermarket and pay more and more for your groceries, it is in part because of inflation and it is also because of the Government‘s renewable energy only policy.

“It does not add up, we need workers with certainty in their lives and steel production to continue and that is exactly what we are dedicated to.”

Mr Dutton went on to throw his support behind the local workers - just not in the way the PM has done.

“I want long-term sustainability of families and workers and I want to make sure steel is produced in South Australia and I want to make sure we can have some peace of mind for the workers were going through a very stressful time,” he said.

“That will be done through finding a new owner (and) putting money on the table to try and help recapitalise what has been a rundown business.

“I have had these discussions with the Premier and it is not going to happen, it is not going to be made easier by the Prime Minister taking an equity stake in the company.”

“I’m completely opposed to it. The Prime Minister can’t run a government - how can he run a steelworks? He’s now proposing to own an airline. How on Earth - I mean, this is Whitlam-esque,” Mr Dutton said.

“It makes it harder for the company to be sustainable. The company is not going to be sustainable. A new buyer is not going to be willing if they’ve got the Government in the boardroom. And if the government’s making decisions as slow as government makes decisions.

“It will just make it harder for the viability of the company. Let’s be very serious about this. There is less prospect of Whyalla remaining as a sustainable business into the coming years if Anthony Albanese owns part of the business.”

Peter Dutton says a Coalition government won’t support the Albvanese Government’s Whyalla green hydrogan plan.

“Not only is it a waste of taxpayers’ money, but it’s also obviously that it is going to make it harder and more cumbersome for an incoming operator,” he said.

“Premier Malinauskas doesn’t support the hydrogen element, and there is a lot more to that story. But the fact is that the Prime Minister has made a decision in relation to green hydrogen which has made it harder for the workers at Whyalla, and it’s been a decision that he’s taken because he’s trying to please Green voters in Sydney and Melbourne.”

The Albanese Government’s Home Affairs Minister has denied claims he has fast-tracked citizenship application processes to shiore upo votes for Labor in the upcoming Federal election.

The Nightly’s Ellen Ransley reports 6000 people are expected to be granted citizenship at western Sydney councils over the weekend, with local mayors saying they’re angry about the process being taken out of their hands:

Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun told the paper he had a conversation with Mr Burke during a local citizenship ceremony on Wednesday, during which the minister had told him new citizens “should be able to have the opportunity to vote”.

The Coalition says it “looks like a desperate last-minute attempt to win some votes”, that “looks dodgy”.

But Mr Burke rejected the assertion, denying he was “fast-tracking” for political gain because “I (have) no idea which way these individuals are going to vote”.

Read the full story here.

Stressed homeowners will have to face up to the fact that prices won’t be falling, Governor Bullock said, referring to the 18 per cent increase in inflation in the last few years.

“The unfortunate news is that the price level doesn’t go back. We can get inflation down to stop it increasing quite so quickly in the future, but the price level isn’t going back to where people remember it being a few years ago,” she warned.

While the Bank looked at underlying inflation as a guide to its momentum, Ms Bullock said headline inflation, which had been reduced via government subsidies was the “thing that matters for people, because that’s what they see.”

It wasn’t all bad news however, with Ms Bullock saying that with real wages rising, the cost of living squeeze would improve.

“I don’t expect it will start feeling better immediately, but I think if we can keep inflation back down in the target band that real wages are rising, I think people will start to feel a bit better over the coming year,” she said.

Ms Bullock was grilled on her comments about Bitcoin last year when she said that that it “was not a currency.”

She didn’t hold back in her disdain for Bitcoin in the hearing.

“It’s doesn’t serve the purpose of money. It doesn’t have a solid value. You can’t be guaranteed that what it’s worth today will be worth the same thing tomorrow. It’s extremely, extremely slow relative to other payment systems.

“You can get transactions through in milliseconds on other payment systems. Because of the way the ledger works, (transactions can take) 10, 15 minutes, sometimes not even then. So I just don’t see that it’s got the infrastructure to be a payment system.

“It’s not a store of value. It’s it’s an asset. For those reasons, I personally don’t think that it’s going to play a role in when you go to your local pizza shop or or or go to buy your groceries,” she said.

Ms Bullock has given more insight into the decision making process behind Tuesday’s rate cut saying that after better than expected inflation in December, and wage data that was “well behaved”, the Bank felt it was time to move.

The faster than expected fall in inflation appears to have been an area of concern for the RBA, and Ms Bullock told the committee that keeping rates might have left it acting too late.

“If we kept the interest rate where it was for the foreseeable future, it’s highly likely that inflation, we’d be putting too much downward pressure on inflation (and it) would be starting to come through the bottom of the band,” Ms Bullock said.

“The board decided in the end that taking off just 25 basis points and then sitting and waiting for more data was the best thing to do. It was a recognition that some of the indicators at least, were coming in for us slightly softer and good news for inflation.”

Hamas’ release of the bodies of hostages has taken a grim turn with Israel now saying the body of Shiri Bibas was not among those released overnight.

Last night (Australian time) Hamas released the bodies of four hostages in black coffins in a macabre public spectacle that included displaying them in front of an image of the Israeli PM made to look like a vampire.

Today, Israel says while the bodies of two children have been confirmed, their mother was not in the coffin as Hamas claimed.

Here’s part of the statement:

“Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with the Israel Police, IDF representatives informed the Bibas family that their loved ones, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, have been identified.

According to the assessment of professional officials, based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.

During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.

This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

Read the full story here.