QUESTION TIME IN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT
WHAT WE LEARNED
* Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce still retains the confidence of his boss, Malcolm Turnbull.
* Centrelink considers a person to be in a de facto relationship from the time they start living with another person as a member of a couple.
* The government is upgrading a plethora of rail lines across the country, including standardising 1130km of the Murray Basin freight rail to Geelong.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTED TO SPIN
* The coalition's economic leadership is delivering dividends in terms of stronger growth and more jobs.
WHAT LABOR WANTED TO TALK ABOUT
* Barnaby Joyce's ongoing woes related to his extra-marital affair and what the prime minister knew when about the employment of Mr Joyce's now-pregnant partner.
THEY SAID WHAT
"Ten years ago the gallery in this place was a sea of proud but heartbroken Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their eyes telling the story of the trauma they've lived with for their whole lives ... I reaffirm (Kevin Rudd's) apology today." - Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull marks a decade since the national apology to the stolen generations
"Whether somebody is a partner of another for the purposes of clause 2.23 is, of course, a question of fact. The facts of the relationship which you're referring to are of course known to the deputy prime minister." - Thanks for clearing that up, prime minister.
"My question is a pretty mundane one." - Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent knows how to entice an audience.
"Today the leader of the National Party has resigned. I understand he's a New Zealander named Bill English. Would the prime minister perhaps for the first time this week like to reflect on the legacy of a former leader of the National Party?" - Labor frontbencher Richard Marles makes a joking veiled reference to deputy prime minister.
TWEETED
@karenlsweeney: Kevin Rudd's in the House of Reps gallery today. Got a round of applause and waves from Labor MPs. A few golf claps from the government front bench too.
@JamesMcGrathLNP: I won't be taking it personally but there is NO-ONE in the Senate Public Gallery.
@GreenJ (Jonathan Green): bob katter, one of the last great surviving beat poets.
