Politics live: Turnbull govt confronts spies, lies and refugees

End of the day. What happened?

• Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin has warned of an "exponential rise" in terrorist activity in Australia in the past two years;
• this came as the head of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, made a rare appearance to talk about whether this is a link between terrorists and refugees;
• this was foisted on him by One Nation;
• speaking of One Nation - Pauline Hanson backed away from a threat not to vote on government legislation until the ABC's funding was cut; and
• question time debated millionaires vs middle Australia.

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

You can follow me on Facebook.

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

There's just time for a quick meeting on cyber security complete with awkward photo opportunity.

Not sure about constitutional recognition? 

Is it a good idea or should we have a treaty? And is there any point talking about a treaty if politicians are already ruling it out?

Well, Fergus Hunter is here to help with this handy guide to the matter.

You can catch up with more of Commissioner Colvin's remarks in this story by national security correspondent David Wroe.

He has some thoughts on the sacking of FBI director James Comey.

This is hilarious.

The Canberra Times reports that someone watching question time called 000 to ask for an ambulance for Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce because they feared he was sick.

"They were genuinely concerned that he needed quick medical attention," Ian Roebuck, an emergency dispatcher for the ACT Ambulance Service, said.

"We explained that he's an adult and can request his own ambulance."

And that's it for question time.

If you're just joining me, let me summarise the speech given by the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin a little while ago.

Commissioner Colvin talked about the "exponential rise" in terrorist activity in Australia in the past two years or so.

"In 2014, we had approximately 19 terrorism investigations. By 2016, just two years later, that number had risen to 72 investigations," he said.

Estimates continue despite question time.

The secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson, has confirmed the Australian embassy in Kabul is in lockdown after a bomb blast.

All staff are safe and accounted for, Ms Adamson says.

But she is excused from the estimates hearing to go and learn more.

Senator Hanson has chosen the middle of question time to slip out a press release walking away from this morning's threat not to vote on government legislation until the ABC's budget is cut.

"Senator Hanson explained that, despite the ABC's bloated budget and regular displays of bias, it would be not be in the nation's best interests to block government supply in exchange for sweeping cuts to the national broadcaster," the press release says.

"The people want One Nation to deal with all legislation on is merits, and the government's budget will be no different."

"However, Senator Hanson explained that if the government wanted to show it was serious about media reform and deficit reduction it would reign (sic - that's One Nation's spelling) in the out of control ABC and SBS."

I love it when MPs get a bit bored in question time and take to twitter:

Notice, also, that Mr Turnbull now consistently attacks Mr Shorten's character.

Once upon a time that was noteworthy but it is a now almost daily affair - as is the apparent anger in Mr Turnbull's voice.

This suggests the Coalition feels it is a worthwhile strategy to keep raising doubts about Mr Shorten.

The government is trying to convince voters of the merits of the return-to-the-centre budget with its promises on education and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The opposition thinks it can sit out the government's attacks on its commitment to both these causes by pointing out what it sees as the flaws with both the policies.

It's a longer term game. 

Given the Coalition seems to have stalled in the polls, maybe Labor is on to something.

Question time is a real battle of wills at the moment.

Don't look at it day-by-day but rather as a whole since the budget. Or, if you can't bear that thought, let me walk you through it.

There's been a bit of the usual gotcha-ism but not much.

Rather, both the government and opposition are bunkering down on their tactics.

Question time begins with the Opposition wondering why the Turnbull government is more interested than millionaires than middle Australia.

And onwards to question time.

Labor senator Alex Gallacher has replied for his decorations and flowers comment.

The Foreign Minster is taking it in her stride.

"This might come as a shock to Labor senator Gallacher but Australia's first female Foreign Minister spends her time focusing on serious issues of Australia's national security and other important matters of state," Ms Bishop said through a spokeswoman.

Commissioner Colvin: "While we know that ISIS is losing ground and influencing the Middle East, it gives law enforcement little room for comfort, as we contemplate the shifting nature of the
conflict away from a land battle, as we see now, towards an ongoing and enduring insurgency that will probably be fought out in all of our nations."

"In fact, if we simply look at the rise in operations conducted by the AFP and our partners over the past three years, the figure is alarming," Commissioner Colvin says.

"In 2014, we had approximately 19 terrorism investigations. By 2016, just two years later, that number had risen to 72 investigations."

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin is speaking to the National Press Club in Canberra.

He says Australia has witnessed "an exponential rise in terrorist activity" over the past two years.

"Since September 2014, the AFP and our partners have arrested 62 people for terrorism matters. We've disrupted at least 12 planned terrorist acts. In that same time, of course, there have been four incidents - three innocent Australians have lost their lives due to terrorist acts, and a number of other people have been seriously injured - including two police officers."

Let's watch the video: