Source : the age
Thanks for joining our live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. Here’s what happened:
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tabled the Liberal Party’s secret election review into their disastrous 2025 election loss, saying opposition MPs could read “about the diabolical campaign that they ran”.
- The opposition repeatedly grilled Labor about so-called ISIS brides, including in the provision of an election funding commitment to a Melbourne organisation hosting a mourning event for killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
- Four MPs, including shadow treasurer Tim Wilson were expelled from the chamber for bad behaviour during the less than 90-minute sitting.
- Albanese called for “greater rigour” to be applied to the provision of lobbyist passes in Parliament House.
Live coverage of question time will return tomorrow.
Independent MP for the Sydney seat of Wentworth, Allegra Spender, has asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about when he will act to protect LGBTQ students and teachers who can face discrimination in private schools.
“Last weekend, I marched in the Mardi Gras, and I recognise that you were the first prime minister to do so. But in 2026 teachers can still be fired and students expelled because of who they love, getting a divorce or having a child out of marriage,” Spender asked.
“This discrimination is committed under federal law in schools that receive federal funding. When will your government follow through on your 2022 election commitment to protect LGBTQ+ students and teachers?”
Albanese rose and spoke about his experience of a school friend being assaulted because of their sexuality. He also referred to recent attacks on LGBTQ young people, which have been filmed and published online.
“My government will continue to promote equality, to engage in a respectful way,” Albanese said.
The prime minister did not directly address Spender’s question on the timeline for reforms.
Opposition spokeswoman for families and social services Melissa McIntosh has asked another question from the Coalition about the return of so-called “ISIS brides”, this time asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if any of these individuals would be settled in his electorate, or whether they will “all settle in Western Sydney”.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke answered the question, saying: “The government is not resettling anyone. We’re not settling anyone in the same way as under the Morrison government, Turnbull government and Abbott Government, when foreign fighters returned under your watch.”
“We are not involved in resettling any of these individuals. They asked to be repatriated. We refused.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for “greater rigour” in the way lobbyists can access Parliament House in Canberra. Independent MP Monique Ryan asked a question on the topic, after reports this morning that Albanese had written to Parliament’s presiding officers on the issue.
“Unescorted access to Parliament is a privilege … the passes [are] a matter for the presiding officers, but I think there should be greater rigour around sponsored passes, particularly for professional lobbyists,” Albanese said.
Lobbyists can access “orange” passes, which give them virtually unfettered access in the building. Crossbench MPs have been highly critical of the provision of such passes, including the lack of a public register of who holds the passes.
Albanese tabled a letter he sent to presiding officers on the topic.
Today’s sitting of question time has been particularly rowdy, with four MPs already booted from the chamber for bad behaviour.
It began within the first five minutes with Labor backbencher Basem Abdo kicked out for heckling former manager of opposition business Alex Hawke. Shortly after Liberal MP Garth Hamilton was expelled, followed by opposition frontbench MP Tony Pasin.
Most recently, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson was expelled for calling out during a response from Housing Minister Clare O’Neil.
As Wilson left the chamber, O’Neil said to the Speaker: “Thank you for that strong action. I think we all feel we can breathe a little bit fresher air.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has reiterated the government’s distaste for those holding events to mourn recently killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, when asked whether funding would be withheld for a Melbourne organisation holding such an event.
“This government’s made it very clear, the prime minister and other ministers have made it clear, as do I, that we don’t consider it appropriate to mourn the death of the Ayatollah. We have made our views about his brutal and oppressive regime very clear repeatedly in recent days, and before that. We take any breaches of the law very seriously,” Chalmers said.
“Our various agencies, the ATO, the charities commission, and others, have the powers to revoke any of the concessional treatment that applies to organisations. And when it comes to the specific case that you have raised, I know that my colleague, [Multicultural Affairs] Minister [Anne] Aly, has been working on this matter, is taking this matter very seriously, and I don’t want to front run her considerations, but I know that it’s being taken seriously, and I suspect that the minister will have more to say about it in due course,” she said.
The question, asked by Wannon MP Dan Tehan was asked again, this time to Aly, who said: “We take very seriously the use of taxpayer money to fund those active activities in those communities … I can assure those opposite that I am doing everything possible looking into this matter, and I will have more to say.”
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson has asked his first question of the afternoon, immediately after he was described by Health Minister Mark Butler as a “man who seems completely devoid of an inside voice” over ideas Wilson has offered about health policy.
Wilson continued the opposition’s attack line on Islamic extremism, asking: “Will the Treasurer rule out a single taxpayer dollar being spent on extremist Islamic prayer groups and places of worship who have been mourning the death of Iran’s brutal dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers rose and began his response by criticising the fact that Wilson had not asked a question about the economy.
“When this country faces very serious economic challenges here and abroad, challenges that this side of the house is very focused on, what [the opposition] have shown over there is that they are more focused on issues, on issues which are not the central concern of people around the kitchen table of this country,” Chalmers said.
The treasurer said the government worked to ensure public funds were spent appropriately.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dramatically tabled the Liberal Party’s secret internal review into the 2025 election, to a raucous show from his Labor backbench. The Liberals had chosen to keep the document private last week.
Responding to a question from a backbencher on the gender pay gap, which referenced transparency, Albanese lauded his government’s work on the issue, before sledging the opposition for not having supported their measures.
Albanese then tabled the document, saying: “I’ll table it for them so that they can read report about the diabolical campaign that they ran about working from home was wrong and all their policies.”
Labor MPs erupted into laughter as the prime minister tabled the document.
According to a leaked copy of the party’s election review, senior Liberal MPs and officials displayed a “notable absence of reflection” about the disastrous 2025 election loss. You can read about the document here.
Question time has begun with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor once again returning to the question of so-called IS brides. Taylor asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if he or any of his staff had supported or expedited the issuing of passports for “ISIS sympathisers” in Syria.
This is another attempt at a question that Taylor asked Albanese yesterday, the opposition leader obviously unsatisfied with the prime minister’s answer.
Albanese rose and sledged the Coalition, saying the constitutional protections of Australian citizens had not changed in recent years, arguing that former prime minister Scott Morrison and former Nationals leader Michael McCormack had not worked to stop ISIS figures from returning to Australia while in government.
Welcome to our live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. My name is Nick Newling, I’ll be taking you through the afternoon’s proceedings.
Yesterday’s sitting of question time featured repeated questions from the opposition about the return of so-called ISIS brides to Australia, with the government lambasted newly appointed Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s record in public office.
You can watch a livestream of question time below, and follow along with our blog for updates.
