Politics live as debate on race hate changes to 18C, welfare and childcare continues

End of the day. What happened?

• the government looks set for a victory on its childcare changes after it decided to decouple the reforms from myriad welfare cuts;
• the $1.6 billion childcare package will be largely funded by a two year freeze on family tax payments which means payments will not go down but they will also not go up in the usual fashion (as per indexation);
• the Nick Xenophon Team supports the childcare changes and the savings measures and says it is not a perfect deal but a vastly better one than the original omnibus malarky;
• changes to the Racial Discrimination Act have been introduced into Parliament; and
• it looks as if the government is also looking to modify its company tax cuts.

Politics - it's all about the art of the possible, right?

My enduring thanks to Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares for their hard work and to you for keeping us company.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning. We hope to have your company once more. Good night.

It's good to have another pair of eyes on stuff.

Like question time, for example. While I was going back and adding in photos and generally being a smart alec James Massola was listening to some questions from the opposition to Mr Morrison about company tax cuts which revealed the Treasurer has left the door open to the government dumping part of its 10-year, $50 billion company tax plan in the May budget.

Mr Morrison ducked two questions about whether the full and original company tax cuts plan would reappear on May 9, and instead attacked the opposition, highlighted Mr Bowen's previous support for a cut to 25 per cent.

The plan is still for the 18C changes to be introduced into the Senate this afternoon (just in case you're wondering).

But Indigenous MPs have told Fairfax Media there is no such thing.

"There is not, and never has been, any such thing as a politicians' model for constitutional recognition," Senator Patrick Dodson said.

In separate statements, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt; Labor frontbencher Linda Burney; and Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy, gave the same assurance, insisting they were waiting on the work of the Referendum Council, which is conducting the dialogues.

Australia's highest-profile Aboriginal politicians have emphatically rejected claims they have settled on a minimalist model for recognition in the constitution, well before an Indigenous constitutional convention assembles at Uluru to debate the referendum question.

Concern that the nation's four most prominent Aboriginal parliamentarians have done a deal on a "politicians' model" has been expressed during the first seven of 12 Indigenous dialogues leading up to the Uluru convention in May.

Look who is in town - working with a coalition of groups to try and stop the Adani coal mine from going ahead.

Happy anniversary to the Turnbulls - it's their 37th wedding anniversary today.

All 12,000 additional visas for Syrian and Iraqi refugees have now been issued, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has announced.

More than 10,000 people have already arrived in Australia, Mr Dutton said, with the rest to arrive in the next few months.

"Priority for the additional places was given to people assessed as the most vulnerable - persecuted minorities, women, children and families with the least prospect of ever returning safely to their homes," he said.

And that's it for question time.

Mr Turnbull is back on unions and the dodginess thereof.

After referring to the ACTU head as "Sally McM-anarchist" (geddit?) the opposition accuses Mr Turnbull of being obsessed.

"Obsessed am I? We're obsessed about the law," Mr Turnbull thunders.

"As a generous man who always believes good of people....." Defence Industries Minister Christopher Pyne cracks himself up while Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, sitting behind him, turns puce from giggling.

The opposition turns to 18C.

Mr Turnbull says "the provisions of 18C have lost their credibility" and lists several legal practitioners who agree with him including former race discrimination commissioner Irene Moss and former chief justice of the NSW Supreme Court and now chair of the ABC, James Spigelman.

Treasurer Scott Morrison would like to correct the record to show he is not any Labor MP's "mate".

He finishes with a flourish that leaves members scratching their heads: "The Leader of the Opposition is just a sucking vacuum."

Not a peep on 18C thus far.

With Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop away and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer working from Melbourne the government frontbench is an all male affair today.

Mr Turnbull is happy to talk about the childcare changes. He is also happy to talk about Labor and the economy.

"Reforms have to be paid for. Reforms have to be well targeted," he says.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asks Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when he will "stop recycling cuts from the 2014 budget".

Mr Turnbull starts by saying Mr Shorten has no plan for childcare before moving to secret payments to unions.

Just a quick note to apologise for the lack of timely photos today.

There is a problem with our IT system that is likely to continue for some time.

Question time - now only a quarter of an hour away.

The leader of the Victorian opposition, Matthew Guy, said Mr Reith had been hospitalised for a "serious medical emergency".