Politics live as Turnbull government debates schools and banks

Time to wrap up. What happened?

• the government introduced the bank levy legislation;
• the rate of the levy has been written into the legislation which means the government of the day could not change it on a whim;
• the government also announced tough new passport controls for paedophiles;
• it has also decided to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to loan money to clean coal projects;
• there are more questions about One Nation; and
• question time continued to be dominated by education as the government and opposition bunker down behind their respective positions.

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

You can follow me on Facebook.

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

Immortalised with a portrait one day, under challenge the next - ain't politics grand?

Chief political correspondent James Massola reports the Aged Care Minister, Ken Wyatt, is likely to face a challenge when preselection time comes around again.

There used to be a bit of an unspoken rule that sitting members shouldn't be challenged but that was in the old days when times were kinder.

While I've got your attention - if you happen to be in Parliament House, or planning to visit, you can see some of Alex Ellinghausen's magnificent work on display as part of an exhibition about Indigenous MPs.

He says - again - there will be no emissions trading scheme.

This is despite many calls from business that this kind of scheme would give them the investment certainty they need.

Mr Frydenberg is discussing the decision to allow the green bank to fund clean coal projects.

He says there are 17 large-scale carbon capture projects around the world and the technology is needed to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.

"If you want to reduce emissions how can you block the amendment?" Mr Frydenberg says.

I just want to share some comments the Foreign Minister made earlier which I didn't have a change to bring to you.

Ms Bishop was asked whether she agrees with US senator John McCain's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a greater threat than ISIS.

In an interview with ABC's 7.30 program on Monday night, Senator McCain said: "I think ISIS can do terrible things. But it's the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election."

Ms Bishop said the senior Republican, in his address to today's Coalition party room meeting as part of his Australian visit, put the two threats in context as "apples and oranges".

"The ISIS threat is present, it is dangerous and we are addressing it. His comments in relation to Russia were about the long-term ambitions of President Putin to restore the Soviet Union or some kind of Russian empire and undermine the international rules-based order that has existed for the last 70 years."
 

And that's it for question time.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is baiting the opposition for not giving an opinion on the bank levy legislation.

It's a hard hard, opposition members protest, when the legislation hasn't been made available to them.

Which is a fair point.

Backbench negotiations.

There's something in the air in the chamber today.

Maybe it was the subdued tone last week, not enough steam was let off and now it's bubbling over.

Maybe it's frustration since neither side has been landing any clear hits.

Whatever it is, there will be no good behaviour awards handed out today.

I spoke too soon (of course I did).

Social Services Minister Christian Porter is getting wound up over who did and did not properly fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

"Get the tin foil hat off, get off the grassy knoll," he says.

Question time has pretty much hit peak hyperbole already and it's only 2.18 pm.

Greens MP Adam Bandt asks Mr Turnbull about the Adani coal mine.

"Do they believe Queenslanders shouldn't have jobs or Indians shouldn't have electricity?" Mr Turnbull thunders.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten takes over with a question about why "every single member of the government voted not once, not twice but six times to cut school funding".

That's not quite what happened but they did vote in favour of their own legislation on school funding.

Mr Turnbull accuses the opposition of "nonsense, hypocrisy and secret deals".

(Otherwise knowns as #questiontimeinfivewords.)

It continues: "When will the government depart from the answer and stop pretending One Nation is the same as any other political party?"

Not any time soon, it appears, given Mr Turnbull completely ignores the question and starts talking about education funding.

The opposition begins with a question for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about why the various questionable goings-on in One Nation have not been referred to the Australian Federal Police.

Mr Turnbull says they are being investigated (Labor referred the matters) and he believes the police should be able to complete their work without interference.

And it's nearly question time.

"To do a Heffernan" - to sneak into the press conference of another politician; tends to be done when the press conference is being given by someone with views the interloper disagrees with.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation remains an independent body so it is up to its members to decide whether so-called 'clean coal' will get any money.

Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson says the decision is "a sop to One Nation and a wedge for Labor".

"Meanwhile the Great Barrier Reef cooks. Politics is so sad," Senator Whish-Wilson says.

Mr Frydenberg is speaking and repeats his earlier line about making the green bank "technology neutral".

"This is proven technology, technology that should be put to use in Australia," he says.

Professor Finkel's report will come out next Friday, Mr Frydenberg confirms.

When the initial suggestion was made Mr Frydenberg said the government was in favour of a "technology neutral, non-ideological approach".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Coalition party room this morning he expected the Finkel review on energy to be completed soon.

But he ruled out - again - the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.