The donation scandal engulfing Labor senator Sam Dastyari is unfairly branding the Chinese community as a "bad bunch", Australia's first Chinese MP has argued.

Embattled Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has broken his silence over the Chinese payments furore, declaring he made a "mistake" by allowing his legal and travel bills to be picked up by donors.

A former Liberal Party treasurer wants a donations cap of $500 per person and abolition of public funding.

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Australia's major political parties would see the vast majority of high-value donations vanish if only individuals on the electoral roll are allowed to donate, according to analysis of Australian Electoral Commission disclosures.

Minister Angus Taylor says the Liberal Party is at risk of losing government if it does not embrace democratisation and warned against the behaviour of party powerbrokers.

''Smoke and mirrors'' from the Immigration Department is masking a paltry 4.7 per cent pay offer, says a union.

Reports set up by Abbott government threaten to expose vulnerable areas to commercial fishing, environmental group warns.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has condemned North Korea for its fresh round of "dangerous, destabilising and provocative" ballistic missile tests.

The latest Islamic State magazine has issued a vicious and detailed call to "lone wolf" followers to stab, shoot, poison and run over Australians at iconic places such as Bondi Beach and the MCG.

They're getting the band back together in Canberra.

Embattled Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has discussed resigning from the opposition front bench to end the furore over his links to Chinese donors.

George Brandis has lost a two-year battle to keep his ministerial diary secret, with the Federal Court ruling against the Attorney-General in the latest chapter of the long running case.

Embattled Labor senator Sam Dastyari has gone to ground, cancelling an event in Sydney and maintaining an unusually low media profile as the government continues to pressure Bill Shorten to sack him from the shadow cabinet.

"It never envisaged that we would leave people there for long, long periods of time without giving them a sense that we were working towards providing them with a decent resettlement outcome," said Paris Aristotle.

Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin look like they're just having too much fun sometimes.

The Newman government had agreed to funding.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and senior Coalition ministers have launched an all-out assault on under-pressure Labor Senator Sam Dastyari, questioning his integrity over Chinese donations and seeking to make the issue a test of Bill Shorten's leadership and judgement.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has ramped up the war on dissidents in his own party over over superannuation, distributing a briefing paper portraying those hurt by his budget measures as high-income tax minimisers.

The senator has recently proven he can be effective as well as outrageous. Now he's about to represent Australia at the UN.

The Finance Department splashed nearly $3 million on office fit outs for federal MPs in 2015, including close to half-a-million dollars for an office former Treasurer Joe Hockey used for less than three months.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has brushed off concerns China could use trade restrictions as leverage against the Australian government's stance on the South China Sea and foreign investment.

Nauru's former president was on his way to Australia for heart surgery. But police and immigration officials at the airport had other ideas.

Benjamin Netanyahu will become the first sitting Israeli prime minister to make an official visit to Australia in 2017.

The most senior figures in the Coalition government have pressured Opposition Leader Bill Shorten over the Sam Dastyari donations scandal, seeking to elevate the issue as a test of his leadership and demanding further questions be answered.

Senior soldiers are urging a review of the Army's social media policy after "prolific" personal use of Facebook and other platforms by military personnel on a recent major exercise created potential security risks.

Asked six times what specific rule Sam Dastyari had breached, Christoper Pyne said it was a "question of ethics"

High-profile members of the federal government's Climate Change Authority have launched a stinging critique of their colleagues, accusing them of giving "untrue and dangerous" advice that ignores what science demands.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo says there is merit in re-examining whether foreign donations should be banned, following revelations Chinese interests have paid the personal bills of prominent Labor Senator Sam Dastyari. 

Australia set to negotiate a post Brexit free trade agreement with Britain.