PM

The Prime Minister is continuing to back his Attorney-General, George Brandis, over his role in the Bell Group litigation case. Senator Brandis made a lengthy explanation to the Senate today over the Commonwealth's discussions with the Western Australian Government about the High Court case. He says he always acted in the Commonwealth's interest. The Opposition is continuing to pursue Senator Brandis, saying he has thrown the former federal treasurer, Joe Hockey, 'under the bus' in relation to the overturned agreement between the two governments.

After securing support from the Senate crossbenchers to pass a compromise deal on the backpacker tax, the Federal Government is turning its attention to reinstating the Australian Building and Construction Commission in the last few parliamentary sitting days of 2016. The bill to restore the ABCC, for which the Government went to a double dissolution election earlier this year, will require the support of crossbench senators to be passed. However, many of the senators have said that they will require time and further negotiations with the Government before they can offer their support.

There was a moment of bipartisanship in the Federal Parliament today. Political leaders put their differences aside to send a united message against indigenous family violence, linked arms and together declaring 'no more'. The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader both stated a unity in their determination to stamp out family violence 'from every corner of this country'. The 'No More' campaign, started by radio presenter Charlie King, works with sporting clubs in the Northern Territory to develop action plans to combat domestic violence.

The Queensland Law Society has described a magistrate's supportive comments to immigration protesters as regrettable, but it served up bigger criticism to the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton. When sentencing protesters who climbed onto Mr Dutton's office, a Queensland magistrate said he'd be proud if one of his 'daughters was caught doing like you did.' Mr Dutton noted the magistrate was appointed by Labor, and suggested the Attorney-General will discipline him. The Law Society says he fails to grasp the principle of the separation of powers, and ought to study 'Civics 101'.

With Aboriginal students severely under-represented in the tertiary sector and many Indigenous languages critically endangered, it's hoped that a new National Centre for Aboriginal Language and Music will play a role in helping to reverse these trends. The centre, at Adelaide University, aims to strengthen Indigenous communities through education, cultural development and innovative collaboration.

The funding of Australian schools has been a tricky topic for decades, but public policy think-tank the Grattan Institute claims it's solved the problem once and for all. The new schools funding model is designed to replace the Gonski review, a model of schools funding designed to allocate money in a fairer way. The Government has described the report as a 'welcome contribution to the debate', but a leading education researcher hasn't been quite so positive, calling it an 'admirable effort', but also failing to cut through the complexity.

South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon has threatened to halt any movement on federal legislation, until the Murray Darling Basin dispute is resolved. It's part of the washup from a bitter political stoush over suggestions by the federal water minister Barnaby Joyce that the Government won't return the full amount of water promised for environmental flows to the river system.

The Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is sticking to his plan to shift a key Government organisation to his own electorate, despite a strongly adverse report on the economics of the move. A cost-benefit analysis released today says moving the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority from Canberra to Armidale will cost more than $25 million for marginal economic benefits. The report says there could be millions of dollars lost to the agriculture industry, and only a handful of staff will make the move. Farmers, vets and chemical manufacturers are all opposed, and the Opposition says it's pork-barrelling, but Mr Joyce is determined it will go ahead.

The Federal and Queensland Environment Ministers say they're signing off today on a report on the state of the Great Barrier Reef for UNESCO. Both ministers say they're confident UNESCO will see progress made on protection of the reef. And the Adani Carmichael coal mine in north central Queensland's Galilee Basin, cleared another legal hurdle for its $16.5 billion project today.

The West Australian Attorney-General is this afternoon vigorously defending a deal he did with the Federal Government that would have diverted $300 million from the Australian Taxation Office to the State Government. There are calls today for both he and his federal counterpart, George Brandis, to resign over the agreement, which was thwarted in the High Court by the former commonwealth soliciter-general Justin Gleeson.