Politics live as Turnbull government escalates Barnaby Joyce citizenship crisis

Time for me to call it a day. What happened?

• the Turnbull government continued to attack the opposition over its role in uncovering Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's dual citizenship;
• Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop wondered whether Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was colluding with any other parliaments around the world;
• the opposition mocked the government's attack in question time;
• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull opened question time by attacking a local council;
• whether or not the government has a deal on media industry changes remains in doubt; and
• One Nation senator Peter Georgiou gave his first speech to the Senate.

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

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Senator Georgiou also wants more action to tackle gambling.

He finishes by saying One Nation senators are "not members of the political class" and promises to try and create "honest, open and accountable government".

Senator Georgiou turns to the banks.

He has says he has already been flooded by people's complaints about banks.

The days of banks "ruining the lives of hard working Australians is over".

Senator Georgiou has a number of things he wants to tackle - a better GST deal for Western Australia, a royal commission into banks, more apprenticeships, the cost of living, anti social behaviour and welfare dependency.

He says "the general vibe in these towns" with cashless welfare cards has been improved.

He jokes that "despite the rumours" he was born in Australia, not Greece.

Senator Georgiou praises his father who moved to Australia in the early 1970s to make a better life for her family and bought a tape recorder so he could learn English.

His dad worked as an electrician for two years to save money to bring his family to Australia.

New One Nation senator Peter Georgiou is giving his first speech to the Senate.

He says he is blessed to be a senator and to represent the people of Western Australia (remember he is replacing Rod Culleton).

He thanks Senator Hanson for her strength and courage in trying to change politics.

Let's go for the close up.

This all because Yarra City has voted to stop referring to January 26 as Australia Day.

Councillors on Tuesday night also voted to stop holding any citizenship ceremonies on that day from 2018.

And as if all this isn't enough the government has "moved today to safeguard the integrity of citizenship ceremonies in the City of Yarra".

"The Melbourne local authority will be stripped of its power to hold any citizenship ceremonies following its political resolution which cancelled Australia Day citizenship formalities," Assistant Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said in a statement.

Mr Hawke said the government "would not tolerate Yarra Council's use of citizenship ceremonies as a political device in a campaign against Australia Day being celebrated on January 26".

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has commented on reports Islamic State terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has been killed in Syria.

Mr Dutton says it is "always very difficult to confirm these reports, given that we're dealing with war zones in Syria and Iraq".

"Nobody would mourn his loss, and the fact is that if people make a decision to go to the Middle East or anywhere else to engage with ISIS in a fight against countries like ours, then, frankly, they deserve the outcome that perhaps has met Sharrouf." 

Yes please.

We are all the PM this afternoon.

Now here's an interesting story.

The Trump administration has listed Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party as a threat to religious freedom in a new report released in Washington.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released the annual assessment of religious persecution and intolerance on Wednesday, using a chapter on Australia to highlight Senator Hanson's 2016 maiden speech to the Senate in which she claimed the country was "in danger of being swamped by Muslims".

The motion is unsuccessful.

Question time is over.

For the third time this week the opposition tries to move a suspension of standing orders.

Labor MP Tony Burke: "It is national joke day and they [the government] have delivered."

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne: "There's only so much faux outrage I can put up with in one week."

Ms Plibersek used to be foreign affairs spokeswoman and to say there is no love lost between her and Ms Bishop is one of the larger understatements one could make.

Ms Plibersek is sent out for interjecting.

But Ms Bishop continues saying Ms Plibersek's time as foreign affairs spokeswoman "was so embarrassing she clearly had to be moved on".
 

Frontbencher Tanya Plibersek asks Ms Bishop how she can be an effective foreign minister when she can work with Iran, Russia and the Philippines but "maybe not New Zealand".

"Oh really Mr Speaker?" Ms Bishop says.

"What's the capital of Africa again?"

The opposition is thoroughly enjoying question time. Thoroughly.

The question earns Labor a rebuke from Speaker Tony Smith for "snubbing" the Parliament.

Labor MP Tony Burke tries another approach.

He asks Ms Bishop to tell the house more about the "evil, treacherous, treasonous international conspiracy" she has uncovered.

Ms Bishop's look could start a war all by itself.