End of the day. What happened?
- Labor has been pushing the Coalition to say whether or not it has a plan to change capital gains tax arrangements;
- the Coalition is doing its best to sound like it is saying 'no' while leaving itself a bit of wriggle room;
- Malcolm Turnbull had another go at Bill Shorten in question time and basically calling him a cry baby;
- this was in response to constant needling from Labor about One Nation; and
- a government senator has defended politicians' perks.
My thanks to Andrew Meares and Alex Ellinghausen for their super work and to you for reading and commenting.
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Andrew, Alex and I will be back when Parliament returns on February 27. Until then, take care.
Just in case anyone was wondering, the Australian government has reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of President Donald Trump's shock retreat from the plan, a longstanding and bipartisan pillar of US foreign policy.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told Fairfax Media said Australia's position had been consistent and encouraged "both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to negotiate an outcome that would see Israelis and Palestinians living side by side, within internationally recognised borders, in a peaceful and stable environment".
Resting Bill face.
You can catch up on Senator Macdonald's thoughts on politicians' perks in this story by Adam Gartrell.
Question time comes to an end.
But there is bipartisan thanks and praise for the clerk assistant (committees), Robyn McClelland, who is retiring after many, many years advising MPs about what they can and cannot do.
Mr Turnbull praises Ms McClelland for "service to our democracy".
"Australia is stronger for it."
"What we saw there was the biggest glass jaw in Australian politics," Mr Turnbull says.
"We had his snivelling developing personal explanation earlier in the week, almost bursting into tears that the mean people on the government side had said nasty things about him."
"He can't take it and he can't take the truth about his own hypocrisy, and there he is, standing up here, abusing the standing orders, defying the Speaker to give his torrent of abuse."
The opposition returns to trying to get Mr Turnbull to condemn One Nation policies.
"The reality is, as he knows, is political parties in our system assign preferences in their own interest," Mr Turnbull says.
Mr Turnbull says he doubts Labor supports free heroin or loosening gun laws and yet it has done preference deals with parties that espouse those views.
"Political parties allocate preferences in their own interest," Mr Turnbull repeats.
Has anyone, anywhere in the government asked for any advice about changing capital gains tax, Mr Shorten wants to know.
Mr Turnbull says he has no interest in "fishing expeditions".
Nobody puts the Foreign Minister in the corner.
Undeterred, Ms Bishop just keeps speaking.
And speaking.
They are removed and Ms Bishop finishes her answer without pausing.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop will not let a handful of protesters deter her.
"Land rights not mining rights," several people yell from the public gallery as she answers a question.
Four Labor MPs have been sent out of question time already - Tanya Plibersek, Tim Hammond, Graham Perrett and Rob Mitchell.
We're going down the "rule in rule out" path.
The opposition really wants the government to rule out any changes to capital gains tax.
The government really isn't going to do that.
Speaker Tony Smith is, not for the first time, sounding like the tired parent of rowdy toddlers.
He wearily says he is "a bit sick" of people acknowledging his points of order but paying no attention to them.
Tough times.
Treasurer Scott Morrison accuses the opposition's treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, of being "more left wing than the French socialist government".
We begin with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull if he can rule out changing capital gains tax.
Mr Turnbull says the only party interested in that is the Labor Party.
(Which, you'll note, is not a definitive 'no'.)
Question time, now just ten minutes away.
"These people lost their jobs," Senator Hanson says.
"Most of the members in this house, they haven't retired. They've been thrown out by the people because they didn't want them. And yet we still pay them."
"The age of entitlements is over."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is in agreement that the fewer post retirement perks for politicians the better.
Senator Hanson says former prime ministers should not be entitled to offices, staff, transport or communications services after they leave office.
Senator Hanson says her Brisbane office is in the same building as Kevin Rudd's.
"Have I seen Kevin Rudd? No. That office must be an extreme expense to the taxpayer," she says.
Still on entitlements, the major parties have blocked two Greens motions that would have required politicians to produce receipts to show how they spent their $32,000+ electoral allowances and demonstrate whether they kept any of the money.
"If the Labor and Liberal parties were genuine about restoring the public's trust in our political system, they would have supported this. Instead, they've shown the public exactly where their priorities really lie - inside their own wallets," Greens leader Richard Di Natale said.
"Tonight we will move amendments to force MPs not to take the allowance as salary and to give the parliamentary authority real teeth. There needs to be real penalties for not complying - we're all sick of seeing rule breakers from both the old parties get slapped over the wrist and sent to the backbench."
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