Politics live as Malcolm Turnbull faces company tax cut moment of truth

Time to call it a day. What happened?

• there were a few hours of bipartisanship as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten toured cyclone affected areas of Queensland together;
• but it was back to politics as usual in question time where penalty rates and company tax cuts again dominated;
• there is a long night ahead for the Senate as it debates changes to the Racial Discrimination Act;
• the government is quietly confident it will get its company tax cuts through in amended form tomorrow;
• once that is dealt with Parliament will rise for the five week pre-budget break.

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

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Alex, Andrew and I will be back to bring you the budget on May 9. Let's meet back here then. 

Nick Xenophon made an early flight and will be back in Parliament at about 7 pm so that could change things.

Right - company tax cuts.

The Senate is unlikely to vote on them tonight - it will be dealing with 18C - which means everyone is coming back tomorrow. 

At the moment it looks like there will be a compromise deal of tax cuts for companies with an annual turnover of $50 million which isn't what the government wants.

But it does capture all but the very biggest of companies.

I thought it was a dinosaur but Luke Gosling tells me it is a crocodile (he is from the Northern Territory, after all).

But I know what I know.

I don't know what's going on here but, hey, it's Thursday.

And that's it for question time.

I do like this view of the chamber.

Government members are questioning who Margarita is given there was a media release about her visit put out by hospitality union, United Voice.

Be that as it may, there was no need for someone on the government bench to yell out: "She's a pizza!"

Mr Shorten asks Mr Turnbull about Margarita, a 58 year old hotel cleaner from Melbourne who flew to Canberra after a crowd funding campaign to meet with MPs about penalty rates decision.

"We understand that battle that Margarita has," Mr Turnbull says.

"We applaud her, as a widow, working hard...The one thing we know for sure is Margarita is lucky not to have the Leader of the Opposition represent her because she'd be sold down the river."

Okay, that statement is no longer true.

Mr Turnbull is ramping up, voice hoarse, accusing the opposition of having no policies to create jobs not even policies that are "spurious" and "hypothetical".

Maybe Mr Turnbull is resting his voice but a lot of the heavy lifting of attacking the opposition is being left to his ministers today.

The attack is still there but Mr Turnbull is not the main protagonist.

A new addition to the backbench.

It's back to politics as usual.

Mr Shorten asks Mr Turnbull about the government's submission on the minimum wage to the Fair Work Commission.

"It is a responsible submission," Mr Turnbull says, unlike the union movement's claim for a $45 a week increase.

If the minimum wage is set too high, Mr Turnbull says, it will be a barrier to youth unemployment.

Question time begins with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asking Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the cyclone recovery effort.

Mr Turnbull notes the pair were on a "unity ticket" when it comes to this matter and engaged in some "joint squeegee-ing".

Mr Shorten also makes some comments.

The House of Representatives has also extended its sitting hours.

It will sit tomorrow so it can vote on the company tax legislation the Senate will vote on tonight.

More than one member of the government is pretty unhappy that business has not done more to make the case for the changes.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter told Perth radio a little while ago that if the tax cuts are defeated in the Senate business will have to take some of the blame.

"Better late than never," Mr Porter said when asked if business should have stepped up sooner.

"There is a bit of a sense that some of that advocacy should have been harder and earlier."

The Senate has yet to deal with company tax cuts.

The longer it takes the Senate the better it could be for the government if it is to get the cuts through in their entirety rather than lowering the threshold at which the cuts would apply.

You will remember big business has been in town doing its level best to make sure the whole package gets through.

There is so much to love about this photo.

The pair will be back for question time which has been delayed until 2.30 pm.

As I mentioned earlier, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have been in Queensland inspecting the damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Debbie.