4m agoTue 3 Feb 2026 at 1:19amNationals to ‘take time’ to consider Ley’s offer to reunite Coalition
Nationals leader David Littleproud has confirmed a written offer was made by Sussan Ley to reunite the Coalition.
The opposition leader offered to resolve the rupture but only if the three Nationals senators who crossed the floor on hate laws to remain in the sin-bin for six months.
Nationals would also have to reaffirm cabinet solidarity and agree that neither partyroom can overturn any decision agreed to by the shadow cabinet.
In a statement provided to the media, Littleproud said he wouldn’t be giving any further updates on negotiations through the media.
“As per media reports, the Nationals have received a written offer from the Liberal Party. We will take our time to consider the details,” he said.
“The negotiations are ongoing and we will always be constructive and act in good faith. It’s important we take the time to get the settings right.”
A reminder: Ley put a deadline of next Monday for the Nationals to come back to the fold or she’ll formalise a full shadow ministry without them.
18m agoTue 3 Feb 2026 at 1:05am
Parliament returns but Pauline Hanson missing
While politicians are back in parliament this week, there is a notable absence. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is not in Canberra because she is suspended from sitting in the Senate until Thursday.
That’s because she was censured and suspended from the Upper House after she wore a burka in parliament late last year.
Government senators, the Coalition (when the Liberals and Nationals were together), the Greens and the majority of the crossbench voted for the censure motion in a sign of unity.
28m agoTue 3 Feb 2026 at 12:55amNew seating plan released after Coalition split
A lot of you have been asking for the new seating plan now the Coalition are no more (at least, for now).
All of the Nationals have been moved to the crossbench. But because of the size of Labor’s majority, it pushes the now 28-strong crossbench into the territory where the opposition once sat. So, it doesn’t really look too different (for example Michael McCormack, Llew O’Brien and Colin Boyce are all sticking in their old seats).
Nationals leader David Littleproud will take his place on the backbench for the first time in a long while right behind Liberal leadership aspirant Angus Taylor.
It certainly leaves a lot of room for the Liberal to stretch out on the frontbench!
Will this be the only QT with this seating plan? 🤷♀️
49m agoTue 3 Feb 2026 at 12:34am
Hanson says she isn’t trying to recruit other sitting Liberals or Nations
Pauline Hanson says she isn’t trying to recruit other sitting Liberal or National MPs across to One Nation.
Former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce defected to the minor party in the final sitting week of last year, after a falling out with David Littleproud.
Hanson was asked whether she’s trying to recruit South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic across to the minor party.
The One Nation leader says she hasn’t spoken with Antic.
She won’t rule in or out anyone defecting to her party, and says she won’t accept “opportunists” who want move while overseeing a “ship sinking”.
“I want fair and decent representation, not career politicians and people with the intestinal fortitude to actually continue to fight for the people,” Hanson says.
56m agoTue 3 Feb 2026 at 12:28am
Pauline Hanson denies she accepted flights, transfers from Gina Rinehart’s company
One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has denied she accepted flights or transfers from Gina Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting to attend an event in October last year.
The One Nation leader held a press conference in Adelaide to announce that former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi will lead the minor party’s upper house ticket at the next state election in March.
Hanson was quizzed on whether Hancock Prospecting provided her with flights or transfers to or from the opening of Nicholas Hancock House in Victoria on October 19.
The Queensland senator denied she accepted flights or transfers from Rinehart’s company to attend.
“If you are going to try and say that I’m being funded by Gina Rinehart, the answer is no,” Hanson says.
But pressed again on whether she received flights or transfers, Hanson says she can’t remember.
Asked if she has failed to declare any flights or transfers gifted by Rinehart, Hanson says “no”.
1h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:53pm
Butler says ‘range of new measures’ coming to stem NDIS spending growth
The health minister has been asked about how the federal government will reduce the NDIS growth rate to 6 to 8 per cent.
Mark Butler says the government has reduced the growth rate from 22 per cent, but says more needs to be done to get to 8 per cent.
“We’re still engaged in implementing a range of new measures to get to that 8 per cent growth,” Butler says.
And that’s where we’ll leave the health minister’s press conference!
1h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:51pmLey offers to reunite the Coalition but only if three Nats remain benched
Sussan Ley has offered to reunite the Coalition this week but only if the three senators who crossed the floor remain on the backbench for six months.
The opposition leader’s offer would also require the Nationals to reaffirm cabinet solidarity and agree that neither partyroom can overturn any decision agreed to by the shadow cabinet.
It’s understood that the conditions around cabinet solidarity and Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell, and Susan McDonald remaining on the bench for six months are non-negotiable.
1h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:45pm
Minister looking at reintroducing kids’ health check
(ABC News: Callum Flinn)
Health Minister Mark Butler says the federal government is looking at whether to reintroduce the healthy kids check.
The check allowed parents to access a Medicare funded to assess their child’s physical and emotional development but was scrapped in 2014.
The health minister says the Commonwealth hasn’t made a decision and is speaking with the states and territories about it.
“We’re looking at it earlier in a child’s life. So maybe in their first 18 months to two years, parents will be getting that support and assessment, often through state run child and family health services,” Butler says.
1h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:36pm
Supports in schools expected to be ‘big part’ of negotiations with states, Butler says
The health minister has been asked whether negotiations with states and territories on Thriving Kids will include details of changes to how supports are delivered in schools.
Mark Butler says the negotiations will include discussions about supports in schools and that schools are an “important settings”.
He says it will be a “big part” of negotiations with the states.
The health minister says he thinks it was important to wrap together disability reform and hospital funding deals.
“It was really important, I think, for us to bundle together the the disability reform and hospital funding deals. I think states recognised that as well,” Butler says.
“I think there’s going to be a broader benefit to us having bundled those things together,” he says.
1h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:26pm
Butler says Thriving Kids doesn’t mean more responsibility on parents
(ABC News: Callum Flinn)
Will parents have to shoulder more responsibilities under the Thriving Kids program?
Health Minister Mark Butler says all services that are included in the NDIS were previously state services.
Butler says the Commonwealth wants to make sure parents have the confidence and capabilities to support their children.
“Obviously there will be a point at which many parents and children will need additional targeted supports from trained workers, some of them qualified allied health professionals,” Butler says.
“That is very much contemplated by the program and will be able to be delivered through it and want to make sure that that’s as easy to access as possible as well,” he says.
Thriving Kids Advisory Group co-chair Professor Frank Oberklaid says he thinks it will make life less stressful for parents.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:21pm
All quiet on the Liberal front
It doesn’t look like there will be a spill today. Sources inside the Liberal partyroom say it’s all quiet on that front.
We’re also being told Alex Antic, the Liberal senator who is being speculated to make a move to One Nation, isn’t in the partyroom today.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:21pm
Health minister says suspected double murder suicide in Perth is an ‘awful tragedy’
The health minister has been asked about a suspected double murder suicide in Mosman Park in Perth.
Brothers Otis, 14, and Leon, 16, who lived with disabilities, were found dead at their family home in the Perth suburb of Mosman Park on Friday morning.
Their parents Jarrod Clune, 50, and Maiwenna Goasdoue, 49, were also found dead.
A disability advocate has called for greater support for families with high-needs children.
Asked if the incident will trigger any reforms in the NDIS system, Mark Butler says it was an “awful tragedy”.
But he says he doesn’t want to say anything that will impact the investigation.
“It’s an awful tragedy at so many different levels, but particularly, the loss of two children’s lives who obviously did not choose to die, is an unspeakable tragedy,” Butler says.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:15pm
Oberklaid says new model of care moves away from diagnosis to support
Thriving Kids Advisory Group co-chair Professor Frank Oberklaid says the model of care aims to provide children with support early, rather than requiring a diagnosis.
He says paediatricians who worked on the new model of care moved away from looking at “what’s wrong with a children” to working with their differences.
“Many children just need a bit of support over 6 or 12 months in order to thrive, and their parents need support,” Oberklaid says.
“In the thriving kids’ approach, we took a local settings approach where the children go, in order to be supported.”
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:11pm
Health minister outlines four pillars of Thriving Kids model of care
Health Minister Mark Butler says the advisory group’s report suggests four pillars for the model of care.
They include:
Awareness and early identification of children with developmental issues Provide information, advice and information for parents for children with developmental delaysBuild the skills of parents, teachers and other supportsProvide support for children who need it
“This will be a program targeted, just to be clear, to children who have developmental delay and or autism with low to moderate rates that was the cohort identified all that time ago by the national cabinet,” Butler says.
The health minister says the Commonwealth is aiming to wrap up negotiations with the states and territories on the program by February 20.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:05pm
Mark Butler announces release of Thriving Kids Advisory Group report
Health Minister Mark Butler has stepped up to announce the release of the Thriving Kids Advisory Group report which provides guidance on the program’s national model.
The program, announced by the health minister last year, is designed to divert children with mild to moderate developmental delays and autism away from the NDIS.
Thriving Kids was meant to get up and running on July 1, but it has been pushed back to October after states requested more time.
The health minister says the program was announced after an “alarming number of young children” were enrolled into the NDIS.
He says the Thriving Kids Advisory Group has now developed a model of care.
“I want to thank all of the members of that advisory group for their terrific work over a relatively short period of time,” Butler says.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 11:00pm
Thorpe to move motion to condemn alleged Perth bomb attack
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is pursuing a motion in the Senate condemning the alleged bomb attack on an Invasion Day rally in Perth.
A 31-year-old man has been charged after allegedly throwing a homemade bomb into the crowd on January 26, but it did not detonate.
The incident, which WA police say could have been a “mass casualty event”, is now being investigated as a “potential terrorist attack”.
Thorpe says the government response has been “frustrating”.
“If other politicians had come out hard and condemned what happened, particularly the prime minister, there would be no need for a motion,” she said.
“But because everyone’s been silent, and the media has been silent, and this has been downplayed the way it is, I have to force the hand and put in a motion”.
She says there’s a double standard when addressing racism in this country that needs to be called out.
“Islamophobia has risen, the attacks on Jewish people have risen, but so have the attacks on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in this country,” she said.
“We have a problem with racism, and we need to address it holistically, so that all communities feel safe”.
Thorpe’s motion condemning the attack is set to have the government’s support in the Senate.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 10:31pm
Financial watchdog ASIC gets new chair
Sarah Court and Jim Chalmers. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)
Sarah Court will become the first woman to lead the financial regulator ASIC. Ms Court has been the deputy and will replace outgoing chair Joe Longo.
The regulator oversees banks and other financial institutions. Late last year, it announced it would seek $240 million in penalties from ANZ for “widespread misconduct”. But the agency has sometimes come under criticism for failing to take enough misconduct cases to court, including from Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg.
Court’s background is in litigation (which I suppose you would call an instance of nominative determinism), and in a statement, Jim Chalmers notes her legacy as deputy has been to bolster enforcement, delivering “some of [ASIC’s] strongest enforcement results on record”.
Chalmers boasts of his record “usher[ing] in a wave of female leadership across Australia’s top economic institutions”, following the appointments of Danielle Wood to the Productivity Commission, Jenny Wilkinson to Treasury and Michele Bullock to the RBA, as well as Gina Cass-Gottlieb to the ACCC under the Coalition.
2h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 10:24pm
Where will everyone sit in the chamber today?
Has parliament released a new seating plan considering the coalition split?
– Rory
Hey Rory,
The official seating plan hasn’t been updated yet but we know they won’t be sitting with the Liberals on the frontbench.
The Nationals will need to squeeze in with the rest of the crossbench. As soon as I get my hot little hands on an updated seating chart, I’ll share it here.
3h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 10:14pm
What’s on your bingo card?
Morning Courtney! Does your bingo card have “leadership spill” today?
– J….
Morning J!
My spidey senses are not anticipating it today. But hey, it wouldn’t be the first time this place has surprised me.
3h agoMon 2 Feb 2026 at 10:09pm
Constructive is the word of the moment
Sussan Ley was also asked to provide an update on peace talks between herself and David Littleproud.
It’s probably no surprise she repeated the buzzword of the moment: “constructive”.
But she won’t say she’s willing to accept the Nationals demand for the three senators to be reinstated to the frontbench.
“We agreed to keep talking, because we are both parties on the non-Labor side of politics, and we both have a lot in common when it comes to the people we represent and the way we know we have to hold this Labor government to account,” Ley said.