This was published 11 years ago
Tony Abbott is due to fly out of Canberra for the UN in New York later this evening.
To replace him, we will have Julia Gillard's much-hyped interview with Ray Martin on Channel Nine at 7pm.
Before we head off to prepare a suitable snack plate for the show (to all the Adelaide kids out there, some frog cakes are on the menu), what did we learn today?
And smiles all around for Brandis, Eric Abetz and other Coalition senators right now.
PUP's bid to set up an inquiry into the Queensland government has been surprisingly dee-feated.
Wha happened?
George Brandis has released the detail of the government's "foreign fighters" bill, which is due to be introduced to the Senate tomorrow (it includes a 227 page explanatory memorandum).
It will then be referred to Parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for review.
There will be some fine tooth combing in all of this - which among many other things, seeks to make a new offence of entering a "declared area" (where a terrorist group is engaging in hostile activity).
Staying with the broad Lambie theme, Latika Bourke reports on the latest on burqas.
Coalition MP George Christensen has told Lambie that she should "shut up" when it comes to the burqa.
Christensen (who is also a prominent anti-vegetarian campaigner) told Fairfax Media that while he agreed with the points Lambie had been attempting to make regarding Islamic law and the burqa, she had no idea how to argue the case [Exhibit A? Exhibit B?] and was doing the campaign to ban the burqa a disservice.
Speaking of troughs, the results of today's poll are in:
38 per cent of you think "trough" is somewhere to feed people who work in politics (ping: Rob Messenger).
22 per cent think it is somewhere to feed animals.
While Wang was giving his speech, Jacqui Lambie's media adviser Rob Messenger called in to 2UE for an interview.
Re: his comments about troughs and cubicles earlier, he said that he was just having a laugh (and not misunderstanding what was going on).
He is a great fan of satire and Monty Python, he reasoned, and thought others would understand too.
Wang tells his young daughter in the public gallery that even though she might think being a politician is "silly", "I am doing it for you".
"Honourable senators, lets do this."
"We need smart politicians to make wise decisions," says Wang.
But he tells the Senate, "don't congratulate yourself too early, you haven't heard my definition of smart".
He says that people need to observe carefully and think deeply.
Wang says he wants to "sincerely" thank Palmer for starting PUP.
Clive can be seen working/ texting on his phone in the Senate chamber while Wang talks.