Politics live as Turnbull government defends NBN, pushes company tax cuts

It's time for me to wrap up. What happened?

• the High Court's decision on the seven MPs facing eligibility questions will be announced on Friday;
• if Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is found to be ineligible there could be a byelection on December 2;
• the government wants a new productivity agenda;
• the ABC will not reveal the salaries of its highest paid staff; and
• the Australian Bureau of Statistics says it has received the same-sex marriage forms of 74.5 per cent of eligible Australians.

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

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Alex, Andrew and I will be back with you in the morning. Until then, enjoy your evening.

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds is repeating Mr Turnbull's question time suggestion (see 2.36 pm post) that the ABC colluded with the opposition about its questions relating to the Australian Federal Police.

"We can't make any comment on any of your suppositions," Ms Guthrie says.

"We can't respond to conjecture or speculation about the way this story might have come about."

But she says she will report back to the committee.

You may remember the government promised One Nation it would pursue this issue in return for the minor party's support for its media ownership changes.

Forcing the ABC to disclose how much it pays people would require legislation, something the government does not necessarily have enough support to pass.

Ms Guthrie is calling the government's bluff.

She has told the committee the ABC has advice from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that publishing staff salaries would be a breach of their privacy.

Michelle Guthrie, the managing director of the ABC, is appearing before a Senate estimates committee.

Ms Guthrie is being asked about the government's desire that it should reveal the salaries of its highest paid staff.

Ms Guthrie doesn't understand why salaries should be revealed: "It's massively unfair to our journalists."

While we were in question time the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its weekly update on how the same-sex marriage survey is going.

As of October 20, 74.5 per cent of eligible people had returned their forms.

That's 11.9 million survey forms that have been sent back. 

A reminder the ABS needs the forms back by 6 pm on November 7 in order for them to be counted. To make sure your form reaches the ABS is suggests you post it tomorrow.

And that's it for question time.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull takes up the case by accusing the opposition of "not supporting mandatory sentences for some of the most disgusting crimes in the criminal calendar".

He's talking about this legislation which I wrote about earlier this month.

In a nutshell, the Law Council has suggested the legislation as it has been drafted captures a range of what it describes as "ordinary teenage behaviour" such as sexting.

"Why won't Labor supports us in putting paedophiles and gun runners behind bars?" Mr Turnbull continues.

What's going on in question time?

It's ostensibly about whether the Australian Federal Police has been unable to concentrate on doing things like stopping drug importation rackets because it has had to do other things - such as devoting several officers to guarding Mr Turnbull's Point Piper home (remember the Prime Minister does not live at Kirribilli).

But it's really about the opposition making the case Mr Turnbull does not take responsibility for things (this was also the thrust of its argument about the NBN yesterday).

Mr Turnbull has left most of the defence of this matter to Mr Keenan, who is inflaming the situation by accusing the opposition of not wanting legislative changes to gun ownership or child sex offences.

The opposition gets to the point of the so-far slightly cryptic questions about the AFP - that the AFP detail assigned to the Mr Turnbull's Point Piper mansion was one of the operations that has put a strain on its abilities.

Mr Keenan does not mention Mr Turnbull's house but says the AFP has an excellent record of stopping drug importation (one of the areas the AFP said it was struggling to keep up with).

Mr Turnbull says the opposition should stop colluding with the ABC on tactics.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks Mr Turnbull if he will establish a parliamentary inquiry into the allegations about Crown Casino he raised last week.

Mr Turnbull has already ruled out an inquiry but he says Mr Wilkie should trust "due process" and hand his information to the regulators and the police, rather than use parliamentary privilege.

"The idea that those investigations would be assisted by a simultaneous parliamentary inquiry almost beggars belief," Mr Turnbull says.

Mr Shorten tries again - and this time Mr Turnbull answers.

Mr Turnbull denies the AFP has been short-changed: "We have done everything to make Australia safe."

"The chutzpah of the leader of the opposition," Mr Turnbull says, "to stand up here and ask about national security".

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten begins with a question for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the Australian Federal Police's evidence to a Senate estimates committee this morning in which Commissioner Andrew Colvin talked about the impact of budget cuts to his agency.

Mr Turnbull passes the question to Justice Minister Michael Keenan who says the AFP "has never been better supported".

Nearly question time.

If Mr Joyce is disqualified the earliest a byelection could be held is December 2.

This means the government would go a full sitting week (the one starting November 27) without one of its own, a crucial point.

Things are messiest when it comes to considering what might happen if any of the members of the National Party are found to be ineligible.

If Barnaby Joyce is disqualified, a byelection would be held in his northern NSW seat of New England. He would be favourite to retain the seat, even if former MP Tony Windsor was to throw his hat in the ring again - but no unpopular government likes a byelection.

Who would replace Fiona Nash is complicated because of the way the Coalition's NSW Senate ticket is formulated - her seat would go to a Liberal: disability advocate Hollie Hughes. That could have knock-on effects for the Coalition agreement and numbers in cabinet.

Matt Canavan's parliamentary career would be over - at least, for now - because a High Court countback would elect former senator Joanna Lindgren.

What happens if any of them are declared ineligible?

Malcolm Roberts' seat will go to Queensland publican Fraser Anning, the next candidate on the One Nation ticket.

Scott Ludlam has already paved the way for the next person on the Greens ticket - 22-year-old disability advocate Jordon Steele-John.

Larissa Waters' seat could go to former Democrat Andrew Bartlett.

Nick Xenophon has already announced he is leaving federal politics and his spot will go to another member of his party.

Former Greens senator Larissa Waters did not realise she was a Canadian dual citizen despite being born there and migrating to Australia as a baby. She resigned from the Senate after making the discovery.

Scott Ludlam was the first to catch on to the citizenship trend and also resigned from the Senate after finding out he was a New Zealand dual citizen.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon was given a form of British citizenship through his father, who was born in Cyprus when it was still a British colony.

Senator Xenophon has already said he will leave federal politics to run in the South Australian state election next year.

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts was born in India to a Welsh father and didn't renounce his British ties until five months after he entered the Senate.

Let's refresh our memories about why each of the seven have had to go to court.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce inherited New Zealand citizenship from his father. He has refused to step aside from his roles in cabinet, including as Deputy Prime Minister.

Fiona Nash, the deputy Nationals leader, discovered she was a UK citizen by descent because her father was born in Scotland. Like Mr Joyce, she has refused to step aside from cabinet.

Matt Canavan, also a National, initially claimed his mother had signed him up for Italian citizenship a few years ago, but it turned out Senator Canavan had actually been Italian since he was two. Senator Canavan, unlike his National Party colleagues, resigned from his position as resources minister.

 What can we expect from the court? How long do you have?

The decision could result in a NSW byelection and further chaos for the Turnbull government.

At the heart of the case is a debate about a constitutional provision that says you cannot be eligible to serve in parliament if you're a dual citizen.

The seven MPs are Barnaby Joyce, Fiona Nash, Matt Canavan, Nick Xenophon, Malcolm Roberts, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam.