Question time LIVE: House of Reps meets after Australia grants asylum to Iranian soccer players

Welcome to our live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. My name is Nick Newling, I’ll be taking you through the afternoon’s proceedings.

You can watch a livestream of question time below from 2pm, and follow along with our blog for updates.

The Coalition has again asked about fuel security in Australia, signalling early their question time strategy today.

Energy spokesman Dan Tehan put the question to Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who said the National Oil Supplies Emergency Committee had met three times in the past week to ensure the government was across the situation.

Bowen said a spike in demand was putting pressure on the supply chain, but that oil was arriving onshore in Australia as planned.

He slammed the Queensland energy minister for suggesting Labor was overseeing a fuel security “disaster”.

“This is an international crisis, not an economic opportunity or political opportunity,” Bowen said.

As he began responding to the question he was repeatedly heckled by the MP for Fisher Andrew Wallace, who was expelled from the chamber. Speaker of the House Milton Dick reprimanded Wallace, saying he should know better as he himself was a former Speaker.

Anthony Albanese has said Australia’s fuel supplies were secure after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor kicked off question time by asking the prime minister to identify where in the nation there were fuel shortages because of the war in Iran.

“Australia is fuel-secure right now,” Albanese said.

“We have as much fuel through our ports now as we did before the war.”

The Coalition is uniting with farmers to demand the Albanese government ensure critical industries do not run short on fuel, as fears over price spikes and a protracted war in Iran drive widespread panic-buying in regional areas.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen assured Australians there is currently no shortage based on the fuel stocks held in Australia or in the volumes coming into the country, but has convened an urgent meeting with a fuel taskforce of ministers and industries on Tuesday afternoon.

“There is absolutely no need for panic-buying or panic anything. We are in a very uncertain time internationally, but we enter this crisis very well-prepared,” Bowen told ABC radio. “Not one single shipload of diesel, petrol or jet fuel to Australia has been interrupted.”

The taskforce will include farming organisations, fuel suppliers, Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins, as well as the peak lobby group for the fertiliser industry, which is facing a global supply crunch. It will discuss concerns that fuel wholesalers are hoarding supplies and reports that farmers are panic-buying to avoid future price spikes.

You can read the full story from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s climate and energy correspondent Mike Foley here.

Speaking ahead of question time, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor welcomed Australia’s military support to the United Arab Emirates and visa offers to the Iranian soccer players.

“What we see today is allies working together to push back against this despotic regime, and we very much welcome the decision announcement made by the government to support our allies,” Taylor told reporters in Canberra.

On the government granting asylum to the soccer players, he said: “we welcome this development”.

“These women are standing up against the regime I just described with enormous courage, and I think that’s captured the imagination of the Australian people. Every reasonable Australian would want a good outcome for their safety and for their future.”

The parties kicked off the sitting week with their party room meetings this morning after a public holiday in the ACT yesterday meant parliament did not sit.

The prime minister gave his caucus an update on the evacuation of Australians from the Middle East and the deployment of Australian resources to help defend the United Arab Emirates. He also talked about offering visas to the women on the Iranian soccer team, and his subsequent phone call with Donald Trump.

MPs asked about Australia’s fuel security and Energy Minister Chris Bowen emphasised all planned shipments had arrived.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor discussed with his MPs how the Iran war could impact the Australian economy and fuel security, while the Greens focused on the deployment of Australian troops.

We have fresh evidence of the craziness that is the Australian property market, with new figures showing the value of all homes jumped by almost $3 billion a day through 2025.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the total value of dwellings climbed by $384.8 billion in the final three months of last year, taking the nation’s bricks and mortar to an all-time high of $12.3 trillion.

Values through the December quarter climbed by 3.2 per cent - the largest increase since the final three months of 2021 when official interest rates were at 0.1 per cent.

In terms of the average price of homes, the biggest increase last year was in Western Australia where they grew by 16.8 per cent. Not far behind were the Northern Territory (15.1per cent), Queensland (13.9 per cent) and South Australia (10.6 per cent).

The smallest increases occurred in the nation’s two largest property markets. NSW average prices lifted by 3.6 per cent while in Victoria they increased by 3.4 per cent.

The Albanese government is seeking to amend the Migration Act to allow Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to prevent cohorts of current temporary visa holders from travelling to Australia where they may claim asylum as they shelter from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The opposition and crossbench senators have been briefed on the legislation set to be introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, just hours after members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted humanitarian visas under threat of reprisal from their home country’s regime.

According to briefing documents seen by this masthead, the legislation would extend the ability of the minister to delay the arrival of individuals already granted temporary visas to entire “specified cohorts of non-citizens who hold temporary visas” for a renewable period of six months.

You can read the full story from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age federal politics reporter Nick Newling here.

This morning, we reported that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had invited more Iranian women’s soccer players to seek asylum in Australia as advocates urge authorities to speedily detain any regime handlers who have been trying to intimidate the women into returning home.

Five Iranian players made an audacious escape from the rest of the team at their Gold Coast hotel on Monday night and have been granted humanitarian visas to remain in Australia.

Iranian-Australian advocates hope more players will follow their teammates before the rest of the team departs Australia as early as Tuesday.

Albanese celebrated the players’ escape, saying they should feel at home in Australia.

“We’re willing to provide assistance to other women in the team, noting that this is a very delicate situation and it is up to them,” he said.

“But we say to them: if you want our help, help is here and we will provide that.”

Read the full story from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott here.

Welcome to our live coverage of question time in the House of Representatives. My name is Nick Newling, I’ll be taking you through the afternoon’s proceedings.

You can watch a livestream of question time below from 2pm, and follow along with our blog for updates.