Welcome to our live politics blog, where you can follow all the latest news from Canberra.

1:30pm

Scott Morrison has spoken to reporters, reiterating his focus on the government’s economic management.

“A strong economy is what guarantees the essentials that Australians rely on and we have the runs on the board,” Mr Morrison said.

“We know how to manage money in the Liberal and National government.

“The next election will be about who can run that strong economy to deliver the essential services that Australians rely on.”

Mr Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann are flying to Argentina for the G20 Summit later today.

1:15pm

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

Thank you to everyone who has reached out this week. It’s been a hell of a few days. Your words of support and care really do make a difference. Together, we can change things so all women and girls are treated equally and with respect ✊ November 28, 2018">has written for Junkee

, talking about what it’s like to be a woman in parliament.

“Some days I just don’t want to go to work. I’ve got the best job in the world. As a politician I work in one of the most privileged workplaces in the country, and I get paid well for it. But some days I just want to hide,” she says.

“On these days, the idea of having to be in the same room as some of my male colleagues makes my stomach turn. The sexist put downs, innuendo and bullying while I’m trying to do my job means some days I just don’t feel up to it. Often it is easier to ignore the slurs and stay silent, let the bullies have their fun, shut up and not make a fuss.”

She refers to the incident in the Senate chamber on Tuesday, when LNP Senator Barry O’Sullivan made a crude joke about her and sparked a furious reaction from Richard Di Natale, who was subsequently suspended from the Senate for the rest of the day.

“On Tuesday, I had enough. I was angry. I was angry because I am sick of being targeted by some men in my workplace who, rather than debating ideas with policies, reason and fact, resort to personal insults and sexualised taunts,” she writes.

“For years I have sat silent and tried not to wince while taunts of men’s names, who I supposedly have had sex with, are whispered or shouted across the room at me, designed to shake me, hit me like bullets and throw me off my game.”

Yesterday we spoke to three of the Senators Ms Hanson-Young has accused. You can read what they had to say here.

12:50pm

Penny Wong’s amendment to stop schools from discriminating against students based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status has been introduced, and will face a vote on Monday.

Debate on the amendment will start later today.

12:30pm

Those Senate Budget estimates we mentioned earlier will be held on April 4 and 5, and April 8-11.

Stick that in your diary.

12:25pm

Mehreen Faruqi has followed up her fiery speech in the Senate with a tweetstorm against Labor and the government.

She says Labor is being “disgusting and cowardly”.

12:15pm

Bob Katter is not going to support Kerryn Phelps’ push to get asylum seeker children and their families off Nauru.

“These people are not refugees,” he told Sky News.

“They are not feeling from, they are fleeing to.”

Remember, Dr Phelps needs an absolute majority of 76, so Mr Katter’s opposition is a heavy blow.

Another, very real quote from Mr Katter: “I am a very mad, crazy and wild person and I’m proud of that.”

12:00pm

Academics Andrew Stewart, Jim Stanford and Tess Hardy have written an article for The Conversation outlining five steps to improve Australia’s wage growth.

They say the country is currently experiencing “the slowest sustained rate of wage growth since the 1930s Great Depression”.

These are their five ideas to fix it:

• End active wage suppression by governments;

• Revitalise collective bargaining;

• Strengthen minimum wage regulations;

• Address the “fissuring of work;

• Improve complaince with minimum wage laws.

You can read about their recommendations in more detail here.

11:50pm

The chances of legislation for a national integrity commission being passed by the end of the year - which in parliamentary terms is the end of next week - look pretty slim.

Labor has resisted a push by the Greens to debate the matter in the Senate, preferring to refer the bill to a committee. That will delay any real progress until early next year.

11:30am

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has ripped into Labor for joining with the government to make new migrants wait longer to be eligible for the Newstart Allowance.

For Ms Faruqi, the argument is personal.

“I know the human cost of measures like this firshand, and their impact on people,” she said.

The Senator spoke about her own experience as a new migrant in Australia in 1992. Both she and her husband were engineers, but found themselves unable to get jobs.

“We applied for hundreds of jobs and never got a look in,” she said.

“While no one would give us a job, the support system in Australia at that time did recognise that migrants do need financial assistance to survive, and we were provided this assistance. That was the only way we could survive for the first few months in a new country where we hardly knew anyone.

“It’s pretty rich of Labor to stand here and tell us we don’t understand the complexities. Well you know what, mate, I’ve lived the complexity. So don’t dare come in here and preach to me.”

11:15am

A group of crossbenchers, led by Kerryn Phelps, Andrew Wilkie, Adam Bandt and Derryn Hinch, has just held a press conference to talk about asylum seekers.

Dr Phelps will introduce a bill to parliament next week in an effort to get children and their families off Nauru.

“This is something that is urgent. This is something that cannot wait until next year,” she said.

“This is a humanitarian crisis. It’s a medical solution, not a political solution.

“As a doctor I can’t go on seeing people, knowing people are suffering on Australia’s watch in indefinite offshore detention.”

Dr Phelps said she “can’t see a reasonable argument” against her proposal and wants to see the House rise above party politics.

“This is genuinely a humanitarian crisis. This is exactly the sort of thing that should trump all other business,” Mr Wilkie added.

“All we can do is appeal to our parliamentary colleagues.”

Dr Phelps will need to secure an absolute majority of 76 votes to bring on the debate on her bill. That means she needs to pilfer a vote from the Coalition.

10:50am

The revelation that Malcolm Turnbull has been in regular contact with his successor in Wentworth, Kerryn Phelps, has fed speculation he had a hand in Julia Banks’ decision to quit the government and move to the crossbench.

One of the Liberal Party sources quoted in The Australian’s report said Mr Turnbull’s “hands are all over the Julia Banks” resignation.

Dr Phelps has already confirmed she knew about Ms Banks’ intentions beforehand. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, meanwhile, did not.

But Dr Phelps could not shed any light on whether Ms Banks had been in contact with Mr Turnbull.

“You’d have to ask Julia about that. Who she had conversations with is really a matter for her,” she said this morning.

We tried to ask Ms Banks, but her office told us she is not doing media at the moment.

Mr Turnbull himself has not addressed the theory, but he has commented on the report more generally, implying his critics are suffering from “paranoia”.

Julia Banks. Picture: Getty

Julia Banks. Picture: GettySource:Getty Images

10:30am

The Australia Institute has released the results of a survey asking Australians which political figures they have actually heard of.

Interestingly, more people (82 per cent) recognise Julie Bishop, who is now a backbencher, than the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison (75 per cent).

Full marks to the 19 per cent of you who know who Matthew Canavan is.

Peter Dutton and Christopher Pyne occupy third and fourth place. Picture: Australia Institute

Peter Dutton and Christopher Pyne occupy third and fourth place. Picture: Australia InstituteSource:Supplied

10:20am

Craig Kelly is still wearing the T-shirt.

10:00am

The government has suffered a mildly embarrassing defeat in the Senate, with Labor succeeding in fiddling with next year’s sitting calendar. The details have yet to be worked out, but essentially, it wants to schedule Budget estimates hearings on April 4 and 5.

The Coalition had scheduled them for May, when everyone will be rather busy with that whole election thing.

There is more stuff happening in the Senate today as well.

Around midday, Penny Wong will introduce legislation to stop schools from discriminating against students based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.

She is hoping to start debate on the legislation today and vote on it by Monday.

Penny Wong. Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch

Penny Wong. Picture: AAP/Lukas CochSource:AAP

9:40am

Labor’s Claire O’Neil has taken quite a swing at Kelly O’Dwyer for suggesting the government is “the natural government for Australian women”.

“Hearing Kelly O’Dwyer stand up in parliament and say that the Liberal Party is the natural home of Australian women was one of the most ridiculous statements that has ever been made in the Australian parliament,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Particularly on a day after one of their own female MPs told us that she got bullied out of her own party by people who don’t want to see women in the Liberal Party. It is absolutely ridiculous.”

9:25am

Kerryn Phelps just addressed the report that she has been in regular contact with Malcolm Turnbull.

“Of course I have. Malcolm Turnbull is the former member for Wentworth and he has been very keen to ensure there is an orderly handover,” Dr Phelps told Sky News.

“We just talked about how best to transiition the electorate office over.”

She confirmed Mr Turnbull had allowed his staff to “come in and do a handover" to Ms Phelps’ staff. She denied having discussed anything other than electorate matters with the former prime minister.

“No, not really. You know obviously, people have conversations about what’s going on in the electorate and things that are of local importance,” she said.

“Nothing about Julia Banks?” Dr Phelps was asked.

“No. No, no,” she replied.

Some Liberals suspect Mr Turnbull had a hand in Ms Banks’ defection to the crossbench.

“You’d have to ask Julia about that. Who she had conversations with is really a matter for her,” Dr Phelps said.

Kerryn Phelps. Picture: Gary Ramage

Kerryn Phelps. Picture: Gary RamageSource:News Corp Australia

9:10am

The preselection snub of Liberal Senator Jim Molan, who was given a practically unwinnable place on his party’s ticket, has been overshadowed by all the other drama happening this week.

But Mr Molan is clearly feeling hard done by.

He has shared a “fantastic” opinion piece by Greg Sheridan, which rips into the “barking mad decision” to throw him out of parliament.

“Molan looks and sounds like a regular Australian. He is a great figure in our national life, not that I agree with him on everything, but his departure from parliament would be a huge loss of national security experience and capability,” Sheridan writes.

You can read the whole thing here.

9:00am

Here is some more media commentary Malcolm Turnbull will love.

“He’s becoming the man he hates so much, and that is Tony Abbott,” Sky News host Laura Jayes said this morning.

“He is being destructive from without the party, just like Tony Abbott was when he lost the leadership.”

8:50am

Health Minister Greg Hunt is announcing a new strategy to stop the transmission of HIV today.

The government is going to list the medicine Juluca, which works to stop the replication of the HIV virus, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from December 1, which happens to be World AIDS Day.

It means about 860 people per year will be able to access the medicine, which would otherwise cost them up to $10,800 a year.

Mr Hunt said the move would “put Australia in reach of being one of the first countries in the world to end transmission of HIV”.

“I am proud to say that we are taking decisive action with a range of measure to combat HIV/AIDS in our community,” he said.

8:50am

The Herald Sun has published an explosive poll showing one of the government’s most senior ministers, Kelly O’Dwyer, is at risk of losing her seat at the election.

Labor leads Ms O’Dwyer 53-47 in Higgins, a seat which has previously been held by prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gorton. It was also the seat of Howard government treasurer Peter Costello.

Time to get worried. Picture: AAP

Time to get worried. Picture: AAPSource:AAP

8:40am

Malcolm Turnbull has reacted to a report in The Australian revealing he has been in regular contact with the independent MP who replaced him in Wentworth, Kerryn Phelps.

The newspaper quotes a few agitated Liberal sources. One says the revelation “speaks for itself and confirms everybody’s suspicions” about Mr Turnbull. Another claims he is “consumed by bringing down the government”.

The former prime minister responded on Twitter, implying the sources were suffering from “paranoia”.

Steve Ciobo was just asked about Mr Turnbull on Sky News, and resolutely dodged the question.

“I have no interest in talking about that,” he said.

“If there’s one message we hear from the general public, it’s stop talking about yourselves.”

“Some of your colleagues think Turnbull wants you to lose,” host Kieran Gilbert said.

“The way will win is focusing on what matters to Australians,” Mr Ciobo replied.

He said Australians did not care about “that kind of garbage”.

8:30am

Spotted in the press gallery corridors — Craig Kelly, wearing a T-shirt with Robert Menzies’ face on it.

“Showing where my true loyalties lie,” he said.

Mr Menzies, of course, was the founder of the Liberal Party and Australia’s longest serving prime minister.

Mr Kelly was en route to an interview with Radio National, where he downplayed speculation he is planning to quit the Liberals and run for re-election as an independent.

“I have a contract with the people of Hughes. When I put my name on the ballot paper last year as a Liberal member, I entered a contract to serve Hughes for this term as a Liberal member,” Mr Kelly said.

“I certainly won’t be defecting from the Liberal Party. I am proud to have Scott Morrison as the Prime Minister of this country.”

The suggestion is that Mr Kelly fears losing a preselection battle in his seat, and could quit the party if that happens. Last night he refused to rule that out.

This morning he said he “absolutely” expects to be preselected.

“I actually welcome a preselection contest,” he told Fran Kelly.

“I think it’s good that we all have to put our records on the line.”

Pressed further, he again insisted he had no plans to join the crossbench.

“I haven’t considered that. The other options are to go and coach the Wallabies, given their performance at the moment. Another option is go and be a Tibetan monk and join a monastery.”

Subtle. Picture: Gary Ramage

Subtle. Picture: Gary RamageSource:News Corp Australia

8:15am

Julia Banks still appears to be enjoying herself on the crossbench.