On tonight's program: We assess Bill Shorten's position after party pressure forces his back down on scrapping tax cuts for medium sized businesses; A second round of cuts to penalty rates comes into effect this Sunday, with an estimated 700-thousand workers seeing this penalties cut; And there's a long wait ahead to see if the $35 billion investment in untested future warships will have been worth it.

It'll be at least nine years until we know whether the $35 billion deal to build high-tech, anti-submarine frigates in Adelaide was worth it.

The Police Commander on Manus Island says compensation the Australian Government has paid to asylum seekers is compounding social problems in the province.

In the view of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, no less than the future of the European Union hinged on striking a deal on migration at a tense EU summit that's been underway in Brussels.

A second round of cuts to penalty rates come into effect this Sunday.

As of this morning two dozen more refugees have a license to be on the roads of New South Wales.

The Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been forced to retreat on his plan to scrap tax cuts for medium sized businesses just days after surprising colleagues by announcing the decision.

On tonight's program: a lawyer and a former spy now face charges brought by the Turnbull government; And as an investigation into the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons becomes more likely, we get an inside look at a New York Times forensic investigation into an alleged attack on Douma.

A former spy who exposed a secret ASIS operation in East Timor, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, have been charged with breaching the intelligence act.

Campaigning for the Super Saturday by-elections, due in a month, will begin immediately, with tax front and centre of the argument.