Politics Live: March 15, 2016

Okay, end of the day. What happened?

• it was a day of chicanery in the Senate;
• three cross benchers - Ricky Muir, David Leyonhjelm and Glenn Lazarus - tried to delay debate on the government's changes to Senate voting;
• none of their attempts were successful leaving the government free to pursue its agenda;
• the various moves and counter moves resulted in the government and Greens knocking back debate on building watchdog legislation which makes a bit of a mockery of the government's claims about the legislation's incredible importance;
• and the Greens voting against a move to debate its own marriage equality bill;
• the government has indicated changes to superannuation concessions and the tobacco excise are on the cards for the budget;
• which Treasurer Scott Morrison said would be held on May 10. Or will it?

My eternal thanks to Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen for their magical work and to you for reading and commenting.

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Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning. We look forward to your company. Good night.

Just a courtesy note pointing out my usual moderator is away due to sickness. She will be absent for the rest of the week.

Apologies for the comment frustration I can see some of you are experiencing.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham is getting a bit cross with state governments belly aching about not having enough money for education.

State governments, particularly NSW and Victoria, have lobbied strongly for the government to commit to the final two years of Labor's Gonski school funding deals - calls that have so far been rebuffed. 

Senator Birmingham rejected claims that the Gonski funding increases are leading to big leaps in educational results at disadvantaged schools. According to analysis of the latest NAPLAN results, many of the schools recording the biggest improvements actually saw their funding fall year-on-year, he said. 

Education correspondent Matthew Knott has more.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif earlier today.

Dr Zarif signalled he was willing for talks to continue on the voluntary return of Iranian asylum seekers deemed not to be refugees.

Ms Bishop also backed a United Nations Security Council probe into Tehran's latest ballistic missile test despite a personal assurance from Dr Zarif that the weapons are only intended for self-defence.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale is holding a quick post question time press conference.

He says the marriage equality bill will be brought on on Thursday and it is up to the Labor Party to decide what it does.

As for bringing Parliament back for an early budget: "We won't do anything to facilitate this government's agenda."

Mr Bowen raises a procedural question which can be paraphrased as: "I thought there would be a tax paper before the budget. Is this no longer the case?"

Mr Turnbull "appreciates his curiosity" but says all be revealed on budget night". 

A lecture on the opposition's lack of economic nous is begun.

Once concluded Mr Turnbull calls an end to question time.

The government is very happy to be able to use the wait "just wait and see" approach to budget questions.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt approaches the dispatch box.

"Best minister in the world!" yells out Labor's Tony Burke.

"They never said that of you," retorts Mr Hunt. He looks quite happy to have heckled back. Shame it took him about a month to come up with it.

The opposition is having a lot of fun with the tobacco excise issue and merrily reading out various government ministers' statements on what a terrible idea it was when Labor introduced the measure.

Mr Turnbull is by no means ruling out the proposal.

Mr Shorten would like to know if Mr Turnbull might do something in relation to the tobacco excise.

Mr Turnbull says the policy idea is "hardly original" given he himself suggested it back in 2009.

But as for what the government's plans are in 2016, Mr Turnbull says Mr Shorten will "just have to wait until the budget".

The government is taking the opportunity to point out the importance of the ABCC legislation. The number of sick days by people in the construction industry is mentioned.

Industry Minister Christopher Pyne is quoting some Whitney Houston lyrics.

He also name checks Jack Black in School of Rock. At least he's moved up a few decades from the Zsa Zsa Gabor references of a few weeks back.

Mr Deryfus has another go.

Mr Turnbull points out that unlike Mr Palmer, he was only an "outside investor" and in no way responsible for the operations of the company.

That Mr Dreyfus should make the comparison is "a very, very low and unworthy smear," Mr Turnbull says.

Opposition attorney general spokesman Mark Dreyfus refers to Mr Turnbull's concerns for the workers of Clive Palmer. He wants to know why Mr Turnbull received payments from a company called Play Up while its workers were not being paid.

"I'm not going to dignify that question with an answer," Mr Turnbull says. 

He changes his mind and says the Play Up (a tech start up) shares were originally bought when he was in opposition but requested the shares be sold once he became a minister. When no capital came they wanted their money back.

Everything that happened was done "at arm's length", Mr Turnbull says, and any suggestion that the situation is similar to Mr Palmer's is "completely improper".

There's always one.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten would also like to know about voting reform. Isn't it all just a way of ensuring the Coalition has control of the Senate, he asks, so it can get through 2014 budget measures that are still on the books.

Mr Turnbull dismisses this as "a rather miserable conspiracy theory".

"The leader of the opposition should go back to his better nature and support these changes."

Mr Turnbull takes a question from his own side about Senate voting reforms.

Mr Turnbull says the changes will mean "the voter will make the decision and their decision will be reflected in the composition of the Senate".

Question time begins with a bang.

Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen would like to know the date of the budget.

Treasurer Scott Morrison puts everyone out of their misery and confirms it will be on May 10. As originally planned.

The Senate's crazy attitudes to photography even extends to the tradition of the "class photo" - where all senators gather in the chamber for a picture. The House of Representatives allows press gallery photographers to take a picture once the official photographers have done their work. But the Senate does not.

And Senator Lazarus's motion goes down too.

Onwards to question time!