Politics live as Malcolm Turnbull ponders a problem like Tony Abbott

• 5:06pm on 24 Nov 2016

Time for me to call a halt to proceedings. What happened?

• the silly season is upon us;
• the Senate passed the amended backpacker tax;
• but the House of Representatives has knocked it back;
• which means things are back to square one;
• Pauline Hanson is sick of being called a racist; and
• there is only one more week of Parliament for the year.

My thanks to Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen for their work and to your for reading and commenting.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Alex, Andrew and I will see you soon. Enjoy your evening.

• 5:02pm on 24 Nov 2016

Senator Culleton has explained what he was doing in the House of Representatives: "It was the red fox in the chook yard."

• 5:00pm on 24 Nov 2016

The House of Representatives has rejected the amended backpacker tax which means it has to go back to the Senate.

• 4:42pm on 24 Nov 2016

I love the body language in this photo.

• 4:39pm on 24 Nov 2016

The House of Representatives is now debating the amended backpacker tax.

• 4:16pm on 24 Nov 2016

Here's a video of the exchange:

• 4:09pm on 24 Nov 2016

Heaven help us. I can only imagine what next week will be like.

Don't forget you can follow me on Facebook.

• 4:08pm on 24 Nov 2016

As I've already observed today, things are getting more than a little silly.

Fresh from her appearance in the Senate shortly before question time, Jacqui Lambie has just taken the new president of the National Farmers' Federation to task.

Fiona Simson, the first woman to hold the role, was holding her inaugural press conference which overlapped with Senator Lambie's. Senator Lambie just had a win on the backpacker tax but the NFF does not like what has been agreed.

The two had what we might call a difference of opinion in front of the cameras.

"Don't worry about me, go and talk to your farmers," Senator Lambie finished with while Ms Simson was left to ponder her career move.

• 3:58pm on 24 Nov 2016

That time a senator popped into question time in the House of Representatives.

• 3:33pm on 24 Nov 2016

A staffer has just called to explain that the MP making noises at Ms Ley was not meowing but making the sound of a plane landing. And that the noise gets made "all the time" (which I assume means at many MPs, not all the time Ms Ley speaks).

I stand corrected.

• 3:14pm on 24 Nov 2016

And that's it for question time.

• 3:01pm on 24 Nov 2016

Senator Culleton has left the chamber. An attendant reminds him to nod at the Speaker on the way out.

• 2:54pm on 24 Nov 2016

An unidentified Labor MP has meowed three times while Health Minister Sussan Ley was answering a question.

Speaker Tony Smith is angry about it.

This comes after Employment Minister Michaelia Cash had to put up with Labor senator Glenn Sterle likening her to a zebra and another Labor senator saying she needed her held during negotiations on legislation.

Sexism has always been a bipartisan matter, as far as I can tell.

• 2:43pm on 24 Nov 2016

In a further sign of how nutty today is, Senator Culleton just strolled on to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has pottered over to say hello.

• 2:37pm on 24 Nov 2016

Deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek asks Mr Turnbull: "Why does the policy of this government always refelct the demands of the Liberal Party's extreme right?"

Mr Turnbull says the opposition is stooping to "childish, undergraduate questions" such as its characterisation of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's comments about migrants.

He wonders whether Mr Shorten is "a fool or a knave".

"I think he's both," Mr Turnbull finishes.

• 2:28pm on 24 Nov 2016

Cheeky.

The opposition wants to know if Mr Turnbull has been briefed on what policies Tony Abbott has asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to cost.

Speaker Tony Smith swiftly rules it out of order: "We've been here before.....Play on."

• 2:24pm on 24 Nov 2016

Sorry to interrupt QT but Alex Ellinghausen just filed this picture of One Nation senator Rod Culleton running through the Senate to make sure he doesn't miss the backpacker tax vote.

• 2:13pm on 24 Nov 2016

Mr Joyce is getting upset by the opposition's actions in relation to the backpacker tax.

The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, interjects because "I thought he should take a breath".

• 2:02pm on 24 Nov 2016

Question time has begun in the House of Representatives where Opposition Leader Bill Shorten wants to know if the Coalition will vote for the backpacker tax in the lower house (remember the legislation has been amended in the Senate so it needs to go back to the house).

"This is a plain act of economic vandalism....a plain act of undermining Australian businesses," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thunders.

• 2:00pm on 24 Nov 2016

Senator Hanson is very angry with this suggestion saying it has taken her six months to work out the Senate and it is wrong to suggest she cut a deal.

She planned this, she said, and it was not some last minute deal to get the legislation through.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale says One Nation has become "a doormat " for the Coalition and the agreement is so useless "you might as well have an amendment on world peace".