Politics live as Malcolm Turnbull debates race hate laws and company tax cuts

End of the day. What happened?

• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull began the day by pulling an extradition treaty with China;
• the treaty has not been shelved but the government thinks this is just not the best time to put it before Parliament;
• changes to the Racial Discrimination Act were debated in the Senate;
• where they look likely to be defeated; and
• another crossbench senator has decided the Fair Work Commission's decision on penalty rates is not cool.

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

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Andrew, Alex and I will be back in the morning. Until then, good night.

He says the government is working on the foreign donations issue.

Senator Ryan says he wants a ban but it has to cover activist groups as well because it wouldn't be fair to regulate political parties but not third party groups.

Senator Ryan says it depends on what the "dominant purpose" of the trip is.

But can you charge the taxpayer to travel to a party fundraiser, Sky News political editor David Speers asks.

"I don't want to get into the hypotheticals," Senator Ryan says.

"The whole point is not to have politicians making rules," Senator Ryan says.

It's getting a bit tricky to work out whether, for example, taking a trip to a party fundraiser is okay.

Senator Ryan says he personally wouldn't do it but maybe there would be circumstances where that was okay.

The new authority can investigate someone after the fact, but an MP does not have to check if the purpose of their trip is legit.

Senator Ryan is telling Sky News how the new independent review will oversee entitlements.

It will have a particular focus on travel and what does and does not constitute a work trip.

Senator Ryan says existing legislation is out of date - some of it was passed before he was born, he notes.

Just waiting for an interview with Special Minister of State Scott Ryan who is going to outline changes to the MPs' entitlements scheme.

How many fingers am I holding up?

It seems opposing cuts to penalty rates is a thing.

One Nation changed its position on the issue on Monday and now independent senator Derryn Hinch has suggested he will do the same.

"I do respect the Fair Work decision, but I'm starting to think I might be going to the third umpire here - the workers themselves," Senator Hinch told Melbourne radio this morning.

"I'm being flooded with specific cases of people who are going to do it tough."

But that's okay because it's over.

Question time feels particularly long today.

Not a lot of talk of the budget in this third last question time before the big day.

Mr Turnbull accuses Mr Shorten of "post truth politics with a vengeance" in relation to his claims about penalty rates.

Just to shake things up the crossbench is using its question to ask one of its members a question.

Independent Cathy McGowan asks Andrew Wilkie what is going on with the banking inquiry.

The opposition is back on penalty rates and is linking it to the government's plan to wind back maternity leave.

Now, this is tricky because the government has put the mat leave changes in a welfare bill that seems very unlikely to pass the Senate but it has not said the policy is dead. 

Social Services Minister Christian Porter says for the opposition to suggest the penalty rates decision affects nurses is to "twist and manipulate and lie" about what is going on.

(Mr Porter is correct to say the FWC decision does not relate to nurses.)

The government is running through the plans it has in place to response to Tropical Cyclone Debbie.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asks Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about penalty rates (surprise, surprise).

Mr Turnbull says the Fair Work Commission's decision was based on a "fair, objective" consideration of the facts.

"The Leader of the Opposition has not one policy that supports business," Mr Turnbull says.

"Name one policy of Labor's that would create one extra job."

I'll have to leave Senator Abetz there and take you to question time in the House of Representatives.

Senator Abetz says there are all sorts of things people make offensive remarks about such as freckles, the colour of one's hair, whether one has any hair, glasses and so on.

"The list, quite frankly, is and can be endless," he says.

Saying someone is fat is just as hurtful as a racial slur and yet the legislation does not afford protection against that.

Liberal senator Eric Abetz is speaking about 18C.

He says "the thought police" getting around trying to act on other people's "hurt feelings" means the legislation needs to be changed.

"There may well be unattractive behaviours which we don't like but which government does not seek to outlaw," he says.

"I think the community wants to see the parliament toss out the amendments," Senator Wong says.

She says she hopes MPs will consider "a young Muslim woman on the bus" or "a young Asian boy on the street" when they vote.

"In many ways what has been most wrong and what has been most damaging is the signal this Prime Minister is sending....that this kind of racial abuse is permissable."