Politics live: Nick Xenophon says government's welfare changes 'too harsh'

End of the day. What happened?

• one of the government's key reforms - its welfare omnibus legislation - looks dead in the water after the Nick Xenophon Team said it would not support it;
• this leaves the legislation - which includes changes to childcare - without enough support in the Senate;
• the government has not yet said what will happen to the various measures contained in the legislation; 
• MPs gathered to listen to the government deliver its annual progress report on Indigenous disadvantage; but
• the report was not encouraging.

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

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Andrew, Alex and I will be back in the morning. Until then, go well.

"I believe all electrons are created equal," the Deputy Prime Minister tells Sky News.

It's not like a motion actually compels anyone to do anything but still....

The government - obviously - says this is ridiculous on the grounds that Mr Christensen was not there as a representative of the government.

It's also "plainly political and designed to waste the Senate's time," Coalition senator James McGrath says.

Ah dear.

The Senate is debating a motion that calls on the Coalition to expel George Christensen from the party room for attending a Q Society dinner last week.

(If you're not familiar with the event I speak of you might like to catch up on what happened in this story.)

"I've been given 60 seconds to talk about the extreme right. I don't need that long," Labor senator Sam Dastyari says.

One thing to watch out for tomorrow is the release of a Senate committee report on the exposure draft of the government's marriage equality plebiscite legislation.

Obviously Parliament knocked back the proposal last year. 

However, several MPs have been dropping heavy hints that the committee's comments about the future of marriage equality will make for interesting reading.

A bit more information on the changes to MPs entitlements that will be debated by the Senate tomorrow in this story.

And that's it for question time.

So far - no questions on anything to do with the government's failure to do much about Indigenous disadvantage.

The opposition asks again about the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

"The only threat to the National Disability Insurance Scheme is Labor's failure to fund it," Mr Turnbull says.

"Their failure to provide for the future is imposing an unconscionable level of debt on our children and grandchildren."

Mr Joyce replies.

Not that anyone understands what he's really on about which prompts Mr Burke to make a point of order based on the ruling that answers must be in English.

The opposition's Tony Burke is pretty happy to be able to ask Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce about some news just in. And this is that the WA National Party is preferencing the Greens above the Liberal Party.

Mr Burke points out that only yesterday Mr Joyce was ridiculing the Labor Party for taking Greens' preferences and wants to know if Mr Joyce will "ridicule himself for the sake of consistency".

Speaker Tony Smith rules the question in order.

Labor is trying to deflate Mr Turnbull's argument by pointing there were power shortages in the Hunter last week and yet NSW relies overwhelmingly on coal.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg says Labor is misrepresenting the situation in relation to Tomago, the power plant in question.

Labor MP Tim Hammond heckles Mr Turnbull.

"Coal war warrior," he yells.

Won't someone please stop the dad jokes?

This might be the saddest thing I've seen this Valentine's Day.

The government continues with its favourite topic - energy.

Mr Turnbull says South Australia is "the canary in the coal mine" when it comes to energy policy.

Not only is energy security a threat to businesses and industry but a "threat to families".

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asks Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull why he is holding the National Disability Insurance Scheme "hostage".

Mr Turnbull scoffs at Mr Shorten and the opposition: "Their motives are so good, they just can't pay for them."

"The problem with socialists is they always run out of other people's money."

Nearly question time.

You can catch up on athlete Kurt Fearnley's attack on the government's welfare measures in this video.

Mr Turnbull says although the progress is disappointing he does not want a feeling of "despondency" to prevail.

"Let us tell the stories of Indigenous achievement and hard work because those stories are true markers of progress," Mr Turnbull says.

"They inspire and encourage and they make a difference."