Key events
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night that the Coalition pressure to prevent all the 34 Australian wives and children of IS fighters killed or captured in Syria from returning to Australia was “silly hypocrisy”. More coming up.
New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister has made some pointed comments about Australian politics, saying he’s “aghast” at the rapid change of leadership in the major parties and reckons “ego” is behind it.
Australia’s unemployment is widely tipped to be on the rise once again after a surprise fall. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first lot of labour force figures of 2026 today, with a slight rise to 4.2% for January expected.