Australian politics live: Greens deputy Mehreen Faruqi not able to represent the Senate as part of delegations

Anthony Albanese has said that he welcomes debate on how to overhaul child care to make it safer after horrific allegations of child sex abuse in Melbourne.

From working across jurisdictions to considering new models such as colocating schools, the PM expressed openness to shake up the sector to ensure no child is harmed.

“We want to have a debate,” Mr Albanese told an ABC interview on Wednesday.

“I think it makes a lot of sense, for example, to have childcare centres … co-located with schools.

“Avoiding the double drop-off would make a lot of sense for parents.

“Of course we want childcare to be safe … we will do everything we can, we will work across the States and Territories.”

Pauline Hanson has defended her decision to turn her back to the Welcome to Country as Parliament opened.

Speaking on ABC Radio Canberra, Senator Hanson said that it was a long-running tradition she was “not changing” and welcomed that colleagues Malcolm Roberts, Warwick Stacey and Tyron Whitten joined her.

“That’s a tradition I’ve had for the last three years, so I’m not changing my stance on it,” she said.

“It was great to see my colleagues have made their own decisions. I didn’t tell them to do it.”

The PM has reminded One Nation members who turned their backs on the Acknowledgement to Country ceremony as Parliament opened on Tuesday that “respect costs nothing”.

Led by Pauline Hansen, colleagues Malcolm Roberts and newly elected senators Warwick Stacey and Tyron Whitten turned their backs.

“Respect costs nothing and yesterday we began the Parliament with the Welcome to Country, we had First Nations dancers, smoking ceremonies, it was very dignified way to begin the Parliament,” the PM told ABC on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have a great privilege of sharing this great land of ours with the oldest continuous culture on Earth, having a bit of respect is appropriate in my view.”

Anthony Albanese has put his hands up and stepped away from commenting on the actions of Senator Faruqi.

Asked on ABC on Wednesday afternoon whether she should be suspended from Parliament, the PM refused to be drawn on the issue.

“I will leave it to the Senate processes, my job is to lead the Government,” Mr Albanese said.

The Senate has voted to express “profound disapproval” of Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi’s silent protest during the Governor-General’s speech yesterday, when she held up a sign reading: “Gaza is starving, words won’t feed them, sanction Israel.”

The motion, which passed 50-11, said Senator Faruqi had drawn Sam Mostyn and High Court Chief Justice Stephen Gaegler into political debate “which is highly inapproproiate and undermines our democratic system”.

As a punishment, the chamber resolved that the Greens deputy leader would not be allowed to represent the Senate as part of any delegations during the term of this Parliament.

In answering questions about whether he discussed defence with Chinese counterparts during his recent Beijing trip, Anthony Albanese has used Question Time to hit out at the comments made by the shadow defence minister about Taiwan.

He said remarks made by Angus Taylor, which relate to an ABC interview on July 16, on Taiwan “were entirely irresponsible”.

Mr Taylor’s lengthy comments hadn’t directly aligned with Australia’s stance of “strategic ambiguity” around what it would do if things kicked off between the US and China over Taiwan.

“During that visit, those comments by the Shadow Minister for Defence were entirely irresponsible,” the PM told Parliament.

His comments when it comes to the long held position that has been a bipartisan position up to now, when it comes to the issue of the Taiwan Straits.

“But what we saw from the shadow Defence Minister in his first outing… What we saw is a breach.

“Now, I’m not sure if that’s the position of the Liberal Party today or the National Party today, or where it is.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles has reaffirmed Australia’s support for Ukraine in their conflict against Russia’s illegal invasion.

He told Parliament Question Time that Australia was continuing to sanction Russian individuals and entities involved and as well as offering financial or military support to the cause.

“We continue to support Ukraine across the board,” he said in a response to a question by Clark independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

“Since we’ve come to office, we have had iterative announcements in supporting Ukraine with renewed assistance,” Mr Marles said.

“Our government will stand with Ukraine. I know the Australian people will stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes for Ukraine to resolve this conflict on its terms.”

The first Question Time of the 48th Parliament has broken several representation records. Not only in disability but also in gender participation.

It has been a point highlighted by Catherine King, who has declared in the session on Wednesday that it marked the first majority female Parliament in Australia’s history.

She also congratulated the new member for Sturt MP Claire Clutterham for being the first female to hold the seat.

“We have the first majority female parliament in our history, and you can see from behind me that Labor has been doing the lion’s share of that work,” she said.

“Having women in the room matters, and making sure women are represented across the country also does not happen by accident. You have to purposely do it.”

Her final words come after the Coalition haven’t agreed to introduce quotas to improve their party’s female participation.

Calare independent MP Andrew Gee has asked Health Minister Mark Butler what the Albanese Government is doing to address a doctor shortage crisis in rural and regional Australia.

“Country people have shorter life expectancies than city people. It’s outrageous,” Mr Gee said in his preamble.

Mr Butler admitted it has “never been harder to find a GP in Australia than it has been over the last several years”, adding Labor was committed to improving health care as it had campaigned on at the election.

“There is no single fix for this challenge, which is why we are trying to work right across a range of areas to improve that access,” he said.

“We know that we’re not going to be able to train enough Australians quickly enough to deal with the challenges. which is why we’re also trying to cut red tape and cut costs for overseas-trained doctors.

“In the last 12 months, there’s been a 500 per cent increase in the number of GPS from those three countries applying to come here and work in communities like yours.”

After Jason Clare expressed his thanks to the Opposition for their willingness to act swiftly on making the childcare sector safer, Sussan Ley has returned the praise.

The Opposition leader said it was an “incredibly important issue” and thanked the education minister for engaging her and Shadow Education Minister Jonathon Duniam.

“Can I thank the Minister for Education for the way that he has engaged with me, with my team… reiterate my strong desire to work positively and proactively on this incredibly important issue,” she said, adding the issue made her feel sick.

“I can’t think of many issues in my time in this Parliament that have made me feel as physically sick as this one has. I know this feeling is shared by members across the aisle.

“The legislation was introduced this morning, and we want to examine it closely, as we should.

“We do stand ready to continue to make sure that we get this right.”