Question time as it happened: Matt Canavan elected new leader of the National Party; two more Iranian women seek asylum

Thanks for following along with today’s live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. Here’s what we covered:

• Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed that a member of the Iranian women’s soccer team delegation who received a humanitarian visa to remain in Australia has decided to return to Iran. Members of the delegation who were staying in a secure location had to be moved after Iranian officials became aware of their location.
• Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Liberal Party was in a “death spiral” because of a drift to the right and an ageing, conservative support base. He said a preference deal between the Liberals and One Nation in the upcoming Farrer byelection
• The opposition has continued to argue that Australia is facing a fuel shortage, which the government says is not true. Labor has said the Coalition is acting irresponsibly and causing consumers to panic buy petrol, creating a crisis.
• Newly minted Nationals leader Matt Canavan has said his politics are workable within the Coalition, and warned against the current rate of immigration, saying it was “chaotic”.

The question time blog will return tomorrow, but you can follow our live coverage of the war in Iran here.

New Nationals leader Matt Canavan has maintained his criticism of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s comments on there being no “good” Muslims, but has said the government is letting too many immigrants into the country.

“There’s a limit to how successful you can integrate people over time … If we keep going on this way, we’re going to lose that harmony as a nation. So I’m arguing for what I believe is a very practical, reasonable, common-sense position that we need to calibrate the number of people who come to this country to our ability to welcome into our home,” he said.

“If you invite 10 or 15 people over for dinner, it’s easy to manage, and everyone can get along. If your kids announce a street party, and everyone turns up, 1000 people turn up, you get chaos. You can’t manage that, and unfortunately, under this government, our borders have been managed in a chaotic fashion.”

Canavan said Hanson’s approach to migration was not “going to be the best in this country” and called her comments about Muslim Australians as being “out of line”.

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has said it is “factually not true” that his personal politics are too far away from the Liberal Party’s and therefore unworkable, as asserted by One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce following Canavan’s election this morning.

“That’s just factually not true. I mean, the Liberal Party last year decided overwhelmingly to dump net zero to return our country to a more sensible use of our energy, as I said today,” Canavan told the ABC this afternoon.

“Things are pretty dire right now. Things are tough for the Australian people … but the good news is we have everything at our fingertips to solve these problems. We are blessed with enormous amounts of energy, and now the Liberal, Nationals Party are all on the same page to do that, so I’m really looking forward to working with Angus [Taylor],” he said.

Earlier in the interview, Canavan called Joyce, a former leader of the Nationals, “captain net zero” over his support for the policy under the Morrison government.

Question time has ended for the day with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offering a broadside attack against the Coalition and One Nation following a change in leadership of the National Party. Here’s what he said in response to a question from his back bench.

The surest thing [is when] something important is happening in Australia and the world, those opposite turn the spotlight on themselves.

On the national day of mourning for victims of the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack, they announced they were splitting the Coalition again. On the day of the funeral of the former member for Higgins, the members for Hume and Canning publicly plotted against their leader.

On the day Israel’s President was in Canberra to support grieving members of the Jewish community, the member for Hume resigned and called for a spill. Now with Australians feeling the impact the war in the Middle East, the Nationals have elbowed their way to centre stage.

[Instead of] focusing on fuel security for regional communities they are focused on their front bench security … the fact is we will continue to govern in the national interests ... there will be a different front bench when we get back here … maybe tomorrow, who knows.

Maybe by the time we come back in a week it will be different again. One thing will remain the same - same old Liberals, same old Nats, same old One Nation. Just three right wing parties not standing up for Australia

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has used his opportunity to speak during question time to ask Treasurer Jim Chalmers to organise a meeting on fuel supply issues between independent distributors, the ACCC and relevant ministers.

Joyce said any assertions by the government that there was not a fuel shortage was “ridiculous” and “patently absurd”.

Chalmers said the government was already working to crack down on issues in the industry, including through increased penalties for fuel suppliers undertaking “false and misleading conduct, and cartel behaviour”.

“I say this respectfully to the member for New England ... we don’t need his invitation to engage with the industry. We’ve been doing that all along, and we’ve been engaging with the ACCC as well,” he said.

Nationals MP Allison Penfold has returned the opposition to yesterday’s attack on the government over claims of a fuel shortage across the country. The government has repeatedly rebuffed this claim, saying panic buying is increasing demand, but that there is no supply issue.

Penfold asked Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen why businesses were struggling and “running out of fuel”.

Bowen responded, saying: “We recognise fully that in regional areas in particular, there are shortages in particular areas, and that the supply chain is under huge pressure, as we have seen a massive increase in demand.”

The minister criticised the Coalition’s policy of holding fuel reserves in the United States, saying it was a policy pushed by now Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.

Transport Minister Catherine King, in response to a subsequent question, said the opposition was acting irresponsibly and contributing to panic buying.