BREAKING: An adviser to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has quit after he admitted to tipping off the media about a police raid on the Australian Workers Union on Tuesday.

Amid the overreach, indignation, lip-curling snarls, and combative theatre, the take out for voters is just another ugly argument in Parliament. And this one over donations.

That, and a police raid that seemed a little too public, and a little too well staffed.

Join us live for the day's developments in Canberra.

"We are hoping that we can put something [to the] public by the end of the year ... there will be an announcement before Christmas, I promise you that," Mr Morrow said.

Australia let this army veteran down, minister admits

Rubble to fill 4000 Olympic swimming pools will be excavated from the Snowy Mountains to build the Turnbull government's pumped hydro expansion – and authorities so far don't know where to put it.

An "uncomfortable" Andrew Colvin, Australia's top cop, has rejected claims by the Australian Christian Lobby that a mentally ill man's suicide attempt outside its headquarters should have been labelled a hate crime.

The Australian Federal Police commissioner faced questions over the case of Jaden Duong, a 36-year-old man who tried to kill himself by driving a van full of gas cylinders into the ACL's Canberra building last year.

Australia will give urban warfare and counter-terrorism training to the Philippines within days to help in the fight against Islamic State-pledged terror groups in the country, Defence Minister Marise Payne has announced.

The head of Australia's immigration department has blamed activists and "troublesome outsiders" for a looming and potentially violent standoff over the closure of the refugee processing centre on Manus Island.

Bureaucrats also confirmed Australia will pay up to $250 million a year in services for refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea even after the facility shuts and Australian personnel leave next week.

Officials at Parliament House concede they have no idea who has possession of a 1000-page security manual lost in November last year, despite calling in private investigators.

'The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.'

The department declined to clarify whether goldfish, guinea pigs or birds were included in the crackdown, or whether it would apply retrospectively, forcing asylum seekers to obtain permission for pets they already own.

Neither would the department provide a list of criteria for assessing whether an asylum seeker should be allowed to buy a pet.