Politics live: Turnbull government defends itself on Paris, polls and pot shots

End of the day. What happened?

• the government has poured cold water on the suggestion it is considering a radical restructure of hospital funding;
• the opposition pursued the matter in budget estimates hearings and question time;
• it wants to know why the departmental committee considering the issue continued to meet after the government said it had rejected the idea;
• the government also announced an additional 30 Australian troops would be sent to Afghanistan;
• and senior US Republican senator John McCain was in Canberra for security talks.

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

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Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning. We hope to see you then. Good night.

Senator McCain is in Australia for security talks.

But he is also here to reassure Australia of its importance to the United States.

It is not all that rare for visiting MPs and dignitaries to be given a seat on the floor of the chamber but it is rare for both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader to acknowledge the guest with such warm words. 

My colleague, Fergus Hunter, has written a lovely piece about the portrait of Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt.

It's here if you care to read it over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

And that's it for question time.

Mr Hunt continues with his attempt to explain why he wants to stand up for the reputation of the ALP.

He means the AMA (Australian Medical Association) but strange things happen in the heat of the moment.

The opposition benches are full of chortling and merriment.

The opposition returns to the issue of the Medicare rebate freeze.

Mr Turnbull prefers, instead, to talk about the Medicare levy and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

"This is a man whose eyes filled with tears....and he called on the Coalition to support it - and we did," Mr Turnbull says.

"Now, when the Opposition comes to fill the gap he left, he chooses politics over policy, he chooses his own shabby path."

Mr Shorten has his back turned to Mr Joyce while he is speaking in protest at Mr Joyce's comments about the Beaconsfield mine collapse.

"Not once would I besmirch his character," says Mr Joyce of Larry Knight who died in the Beaconsfield collapse.

Mr Shorten's outrage was "an exaggeration and extension merely for his political convenience", Mr Joyce says.

He does not apologise for the comment (see 9.27 am post).

Health Minister Greg Hunt enthusiastically exclaims: "We love private health insurance!"

I'm not sure about the political wisdom of this statement but anyhoo - you say tomato and all that.

The opposition's health spokeswoman, Catherine King, asks Mr Turnbull about a "secret Medicare taskforce" - by which she means the plan for a shake-up of hospital funding written about by my colleague Adam Gartrell this morning.

It matters not that the story had almost nothing to do with Medicare, what matters is the phrase "secret Medicare taskforce" and repeating it so many times in order to try and get it on the evening news.

The government continues to ratchet up the pressure on the opposition over its refusal to support an across-the-board raise in the Medicare levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asks Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull if he will support Labor's proposal for a royal commission into the abuse of people with disabilities.

Mr Turnbull says most incidents of abuse happen in state-run institutions and he will raise the issue with state and territory leaders next week.

He moves on to the National Disability Insurance Scheme: "I call on him to fund it."

US Senator John McCain is a special guest on the floor of the House of Representatives for question time.

Mr Turnbull says it is "such an honour" to have Senator McCain on the floor.

Mr Turnbull says the Australia-US alliance has "no stronger voice" in America than Senator McCain.

"You are among friends....welcome to our house of democracy here in Canberra," Mr Turnbull says.

Nearly question time.

One thing there is not a shortage of in Canberra is dad jokes.

One member who is indefatigable in this field is Labor frontbencher Ed Husic who has put out a press release about Coalition frontbencher Angus Taylor.

Mr Husic, always hip to the beat, has christened Mr Taylor 'A-Tay'.

I like to think some mischievous sprite in the Opposition Leader's media unit saw this press release and thought they would let Mr Husic live with the shame.

Because 'A-Tay' is no more a thing than 'E-Hu'.

Friends.

Mr Fraser was led into the murky mire of how much money the levy would raise and said much of the reporting of the estimates was too simplistic.

"Calculating what the tax will raise is very complex," he said.

"You need to consider the timing of the payments and tax deductions and issues about bank credit and credit growth over time. We see no reason to step away from our forecast."

That would be the one that was the subject of some discussion in question time last week.

Mr Fraser has also told the committee the impact of the bank levy will be "trivial".

"The results are what common sense would suggest: they are trivial," Mr Fraser told the committee.

"Trivial with respect to interest rates."

Back on the Treasury officials for a moment.

There is a lot of concern about how the details of the bank levy managed to leak out of the secure lock-up.

There is talk of people no longer being allowed to take their own laptops and ipads in and, instead, being issued with Treasury-issued numbers.

One official also suggests people would have to escorted to the bathroom - which gives a whole new meaning to the term 'leak'.

Mr Wyatt reflected that, if his parents were still alive, his mother would be crying at the unveiling. He joked that his father was a Labor voter and would be challenging him over his decision join the Liberal Party.

In an affectionate speech, the Prime Minister embraced Mr Wyatt and said the pair would soon be "crying into our teacups".

Mr Turnbull said Mr Wyatt has what Maori in New Zealand call "mana", meaning an authoritative and charismatic aura.

Portraits of Linda Burney and Nova Peris have also been commissioned.

A portrait of Ken Wyatt, the first Indigenous minister, is being unveiled at Parliament House today.