Politics live as Turnbull's energy debate heats up and Nick Xenophon eyes the exit

It's time for me to call it a day. What happened?

• the government continued to prosecute the case for its energy policy;
• it denies its package contains an emissions trading scheme or a carbon price by stealth;
• the opposition is leaving its options open about whether or not to support it;
• but it is still criticising the package for not doing enough to help consumers or the environment; 
• the major parties are against an inquiry into the allegations about Crown Casino; and
• Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says he will press ahead with citizenship changes but with some modifications to try and revive their prospects in the Senate.

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

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Alex, Andrew and I will be back on Monday. Until we meet again, go well.

The court lists for tomorrow are out and there's no mention of the High Court's decision on the citizenship 7.

So we won't know anything before next week at the earliest.

Paul Keating has made a dramatic last-minute bid to stop Victoria's Parliament from approving voluntary euthanasia laws just hours before a crucial vote he characterised as "a threshold moment" for the entire country.

The 73-year-old, who was Australia's 24th prime minister and is still a Labor lion, slammed the "bald utopianism" underlying the case for change, which assumed rules would never be bent by doctors and families when it becomes more convenient for carers or financial beneficiaries to see a gravely ill person die sooner.

"What matters is that under Victorian law there will be people whose lives we honour and those we believe are better off dead," he writes in a piece for Fairfax Media.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale doesn't think the government's energy package contains a hidden emissions trading scheme.

"No," he says, before adding the policy is a "dud".

And that's it for question time.

The opposition's climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, isn't giving up.

He'd like to know if a policy "looks like a goat, walks like a goat and bleats like a goat" then surely it is a goat.

"Will he continue to pay homage to the volcano gods?" Mr Butler finishes.

Bit more of an homage to one T. Abbott.

Mr Turnbull elaborates on the issue of whether the package contains carbon trading by stealth.

He says "trading of physical energy which, as the honourable member should know, happens all the time".

What the package does not make any provision for, he says, is trading of certificates or permits.

Shorter version - it does not.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is enjoying question time today.

Mr Shorten would like him to say 'yes' or 'no' as to whether the energy package contains a carbon price in disguise.

Obviously, Mr Turnbull has nothing to gain from doing this. He switches to explaining mode. You can tell he's doing this because he takes his glasses off, crosses his arms and bounces on the balls of his feet.

Mr Turnbull says the energy package is "a chance to break with the mistakes of the past, a real game-changer...This is the mechanism that could end the climate wars."

He would like Labor has to "stop the politicking and get on board".

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten begins with a question to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull comparing what people would lose under revised penalty rates versus the savings that could come from the government's energy package.

Mr Turnbull makes the question one about economic management, saying energy prices would always be higher under a Labor government and seizing on the job figures.

"There hasn't been a longer run of jobs growth in 23 years. It's at its highest since 20008 and is now faster than any G7 economy."

"Jobs and growth is not just a slogan - it's an outcome."

Nearly question time, my friends.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and senator Nick Xenophon are holding a press conference about the lack of support from either of the major parties for an inquiry into the allegations surrounding Crown Casino.

"To suggest state and territory governments can be trusted these days to run inquiry into poker machine is laughable," Mr Wilkie says.

"The challenge is to them [major parties] - these are very serious allegations, they're complete out of step with public expectations."

Senator Xenophon says state governments are "jackpot junkies".

The Senate has postponed a vote on the inquiry - presumably because the crossbench hopes it can get enough numbers to secure it.

Beep, beep.

Some good economic news for the government - Australia's unemployment rate fell to 5.5 per cent for September from 5.6 per cent in August, beating market expectations.

The total number of people with jobs rose by 19,800 over the previous month, ahead of expectations of a 15,000 rise.

Full-time employment rose by 6100, while the number of new part-time employees was up 13,700, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The participation rate - the number of people employed or actively looking for a job - was steady at 65.2 per cent.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is holding a press conference.

He's quite feisty about energy saying the policy is "a hostage note written by Malcolm Turnbull to Tony Abbott".

"It'd be interesting to see if it survives to Christmas, won't it?"

An update on citizenship before the day gets any further away.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says he won't back down on his proposed overhaul of Australian citizenship laws, despite the proposal dying quietly in the Senate last night.

The controversial crackdown would have imposed a values test, tough English language test and a four-year waiting period for permanent residents wanting to become Australian citizens.

Mr Dutton this morning confirmed people who applied for citizenship since April 20 - when he announced the changes - will now be processed under the existing rules. That means people won't have to spend four years as a permanent resident or pass a separate English language test to become an Aussie citizen.

But Mr Dutton is pressing ahead offering to make the English test easier and push the start date back to 1 July 2018. He says he'll keep negotiating with the crossbench - but so far that seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

The opposition claimed victory this morning with Tony Burke saying it was "an appalling policy, the likes of which we haven't seen since the White Australia Policy".

However, the opposition is keen to emphasise there is such a price.

Labor frontbencher Tony Burke told Sky News earlier this morning, "It looks like another way of doing an emissions intensive scheme".

"We're still working our way through it. It might be something that Labor could support."

John Pierce, from the Australian Energy Market Commission, also says no because of the way the government wants retailers to meet both reliability and emissions standards.

"So you can't really separate out and say, 'this is a carbon price'. We are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability, what we are pricing is the ability for the mechanism to be dispatched. And that will be effectively reflected in contract prices and those prices will vary in each jurisdiction according to what sort of plant they have on the ground and they will vary over time. I think it would be very hard to actually identify and say 'this is a carbon price' - there isn't one." 

Let's talk about energy.

Yesterday, there were suggestions the government's policy introduces a carbon price by stealth. It's a bit complicated but you can read up on it here.

We all remember Tony Abbott's extremely effective campaign against a carbon price so you can see why the government is keen to stress its policy contains no such thing.

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said there was a simple answer to the proposition: "No.

The statements show the high regard in which Senator Xenophon is held - he is seen by both major parties as a tough negotiator but one who sticks to his guns and doesn't blink in the face of pressure.

Whether the High Court rules in his favour or not, Senator Xenophon has already announced he will be leaving the Senate to run in next year's South Australian election. A Galaxy poll published today shows he is the state's preferred premier.

 41 per cent of participants want to see Senator Xenophon lead the state.

Senator Xenophon had this to say about that this morning: "The task ahead of me is like climbing Mount Everest on crutches without oxygen but it can be done. South Australians want an alternative to the duopoly."

Labor senator Penny Wong zipped back into the chamber to add her thanks, just in case.

"I missed the beginning of your speech, Senator Xenophon, and I know you said 'maybe', so I don't know if this is one of those teasing things that you do: 'I might agree. I might not agree. I might go. I might not'. But in the event that the 'maybe' is in fact the case: I think I sent you a text, which, as I chided you today, you hadn't responded to, when you announced you were running in South Australia and I said, 'I think I can safely say the Senate won't be the same without you - stay in touch'."