Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton trade barbs over opposition ...

Phew. It's been a big old week. Thanks for joining me for some or all of it.

Here's what we learned today:

I'll be back bright and early on Monday morning for another parliamentary sitting week.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

A senate inquiry, set up two years ago has finally reported on its findings about the unexplained deaths of more than 300 Indigenous women and children.

Hearings were held across the country, and more than 80 submissions received.

Greens senator Dorinda Cox was there throughout.

She says the recommendations in the report do not go far enough.

"We need stronger key performance indicators for police, we need a commissioner to oversee this, we need independent oversight," she told Afternoon Briefing.

"We absolutely need to focus on healing but we need to look at the big picture and how this is connected across many different aspects of work that will connect for us the history of this and why we are at this point now."

Ged Kearney says the independent withdrew her call for Peter Dutton to "stop being racist".

Helen Haines says it's not uncommon for the speaker to ask an MP to withdraw a remark. 

She says this morning's events was "an elevation in the temperature of the parliament".

"Which goes to my number one point. We have all been cautioned to be careful we do not elevate the temperature of this nation," she says.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton tried to launch a debate on the floor of the House over the granting of visas to Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Gaza. 

Independent Helen Haines says it's rare for her to vote for a gag motion but she did today after a lines were crossed during the heated debate.

"Some of the accusations that were being made, some of the imputations drawn around large numbers of people who are in no way could the proponents … demonstrate any proof whatsoever that these people had … any terrorist links.

"These are some of the imputations and this matters. It truly matters."

Ged Kearney tells Afternoon Briefing that it is important, as public figures, that politicians consider the language they are using.

"We are in a position where our voices are elevated across all of society and we have to be very careful language we use does not create division or a lack of social cohesion," she says.

Independent MP Dai Le became emotional as she told the ABC how the debate over whether Gazans fleeing war should be allowed to settle in Australia brought up memories of her own experience.

Le escaped war-torn Vietnam as child and lived in refugee camps before eventually settling in Australia.

"I’m thinking, ‘Gosh, what if there are families like mine, exactly the same position, but then another country ... is saying they’re all terrorists'," she says.

"That would mean that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be where I am today."

That was Independent senator Jacqui Lambie taking aim at the Liberals in the Senate this afternoon.

She slammed the party for rejecting Labor’s CFMEU legislation in its current form.

"Right now, John Setka is sitting out there with his new tattoo on his beanbag, and he’s got his popcorn out, and he’s got a whole new cheer squad they’re called the Liberal party yeah," Lambie said.

Politicians on all sides of the chamber fired up during the debate.

Labor accused the Libs of playing political games.

"We should all be passing the bill to clean up the CFMEU… and you have an opportunity to do it today… if you do not, your political hypocrisy will be on display," senator Penny Wong said.

Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash fired back, saying the legislation looked like it had been written by disgraced former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka himself.

"They talk a big game but they are weak when it comes to putting in place the legislation," said Cash.

At times, it all got too rowdy for Senate President Sue Lines.

"It has been a long time since there has been such a disgraceful display, a blatant disregard of my many calls for order," she said.

In the end the government’s attempt to force the vote failed, so the debate is far from over.

Liberal frontbencher Paul Fletcher says the issue the Coalition has isn't with our security agencies, it's with the PM.

"The agency is ultimately responsible for the directions they are given by ministers and by the prime minister," he says.

Paul Fletcher is up next. He's asked to respond to the suggestion from expert Abul Rizvi that it's unlikely a Hamas operative would have applied for an Australian visa.

"It's not entirely surprising that Abul Rizvi is running Labor's talking points," he tells Greg Jennett. 

"We are after the facts."

The Coalition wants another layer of checks added so that applications are also run through an Israeli list of suspected Hamas supporters or sympathisers.

"These are all things that we are suggesting that I think a responsible government would do," he says.

Former deputy secretary of the immigration department Abul Rizvi says it is unlikely any Hamas fighter, operative or ideological adherent would have either applied or been granted visa to Australia.

He says if they had applied, they would have been "refused very quickly".

"I would say two things about (Peter Dutton)'s comments," he told Afternoon Breifing.

"The first is his comments of a blanket ban on helping people out of a war or conflict zone is unprecedented, certainly in the last 30 years.

"I cannot remember an instance where a major party political leader said blanket no, we will not help absolutely anybody, irrespective of whatever links they might have two Australian citizens or to Australia.

"Secondly, I've never heard a major party political leader question, to the degree that currently is being questioned, the processes and this checking that our security agencies do."

Fair to say Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt is not happy Jan after CFMEU legislation was kicked down the road until next week.

In a bit of a fiery statement, he's described it as an "embarrassing capitulation" from the Coalition and its spokeswoman Michaelia Cash.

"What are they scared of? Why don’t they want to act now to weed out the alleged corruption and organised crime in the construction industry," he said.

The ABC has declined to reveal the legal fees it has incurred in the ongoing legal battle with sacked radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf.

Deputy Greens Leader, Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s asked the ABC’s Managing Director David Anderson during the senate estimates in May, “how many lawyers make up the legal team which the ABC has engaged in the case against Antoinette Lattouf?” and “how much money has the ABC spent to date on these two cases?”

In a public response this morning, the public broadcaster confirmed that in addition to engaging two barristers for the proceedings, a partner and two associates from US law firm "Sweyfarth Shaw" are representing it in the case. The statement did not include the amount of legal costs over concerns it may "prejudice the ABC's position in those legal proceedings."

Senator Faruqi fired back saying, "the ABC needs to stop ducking and weaving. The public has a right to know. Its own staff are calling for it to drop this pointless lawsuit."

"If ABC management are so determined to pursue this legal fight against a woman journalist of colour that they sacked for sharing a Human Rights Watch post, then they should disclose how much taxpayer money they’re spending," she added.

She also aired her frustrations over how long it took for the ABC to respond to the question she asked on May 30.

"It took weeks of follow-ups to force basically a non-answer out of the ABC on how much taxpayer money it is wasting fighting a lawsuit against Ms Lattouf," she said.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said in a statement, "This has been a drawn-out process which has continued for more than six months, doing damage to the ABC’s reputation."

Ms Lattouf lodged a claim for unlawful dismissal against the ABC after she was sent home on day three of a five-day assignment presenting at ABC Radio Sydney in December 2023.

The government's attempt to force through a vote on the CFMEU powers has been rejected.

The Coalition and Greens teamed up to reject the government's attempt to suspend standing orders so that they could bring on a vote.

So the bill will remain sitting in the senate, and the government won't get the legislation passed this week.

But as friend of the blog Monte Bovill always says, there is only four days to wait until the next one.

And it's another question on security checks for people fleeing Gaza.

This time the PM is asked how many visas have been cancelled following additional security checks.

Anthony Albanese says he takes the same advice from the same agencies as the opposition did when they were in government.

He says if the Coalition doesn't believe the temperature needed to be lowered, they can continue down that "cul-de-sac".

"But I've got to say that we want to ensure the security of our nation is prioritised, not a news grab, not a headline," he says.

The Senate is being tested on whether it will back laws to take control of the CFMEU's construction division.

The government has been warning it would force a vote on its bill to effectively force the union to accept an administrator.

There were suggestions the government was close to a deal with the Coalition, but the debate that has just happened in the chamber would suggest otherwise.

The government moved to suspend standing orders, to allow a vote to happen. If that motion is supported it will indicate the government has the necessary support for the CFMEU laws.

The vote is being counted now so we'll see soon whether the government got the numbers it needs.

If the bill passes it will infuriate the CFMEU, but the government said they were acting too slowly in the courts and the issue could not be delayed any longer.

Travellers are being encouraged to continue to book flights in regional Australia with Rex, despite the airline going into voluntary administration last month.

In Question Time, Transport Minister Catherine King said the federal government would provide a money-back guarantee for passengers if regional flights booked with Rex failed to get off the ground.

"The guarantee will only be triggered if a service is cancelled and where no alternate service has been delivered, and no refund if the guarantee is triggered," King said.

“Affected customers will receive a refund directly from their credit card, merchant or travel booking provider, backed by the government guarantee. Any drawdown of the guarantee is required to be repaid by the administrators.”

The guarantee applies to Rex Regional flight bookings made after Rex entered voluntary administration at 9:30pm on July 30.

Anthony Albanese is asked whether or not his government will "urgently implement" all of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide when it releases its final report.

The PM tells Andrew Wilkie, who asked the question, it's hard to comment without seeing the recommendations.

But he says the government will give "proper consideration" to the report.

It is due by September 9.

Debate has been turned up to an 11 in the Senate, where the government is now attempting to force a vote on its bill to take control of the CFMEU's construction division.

An angry Penny Wong said if the Coalition does not support the powers to force CFMEU to accept an administrator, it will only be playing base politics.

"We should all be passing this bill to clean up the CFMEU ... the industry is asking for it. This is about making sure we weed out corruption," Wong said.

"You have an opportunity to do it today. And if you do not your political hypocrisy will be on display. "

Simon Birmingham responded by saying it could pass "today" if the government accepted the opposition's amendments, including to stop accepting  donations from the CFMEU.

"I can think of 6.2 million reasons they don't want this bill to pass," he retorted.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser wants to know how many of the 2,900 people issued with visas from Gaza have had their biometric data checked against Israeli government records.

The PM says he's not in a position to answer.

"It's a fact that one of the things we don't do, as I said to previous questions, is go through all the detail of our security arrangements," he says. 

"If you want me to go down the track of talking about the arrangements we have with our Five Eyes partners, with other governments, that is just an extraordinary question for him to expect."

Anthony Albanese says he has confidence in our security agencies.