Stuart Robert says ‘too late’ to debate Tanya Plibersek on education – as it happened

Elias Visontay gave us a bit of a teaser on this earlier, now he’s intercepted more information on Australia’s spy agency’s plans:

Further to the fascinating to and fro, below, between the ABC’s Fran Kelly and acting education minister, Stuart Robert, in which he claimed it’s “too late” to debate his shadow, Tanya Plibersek:

Updated at 03.12 EDT

Xenophon nominates water and the Murray-Darling Basin plan, gambling and the gambling lobby, and the structure of the NDIS as policy issues he’s keen to tackle if he gets a South Australian senate spot. He also says he supports defence spending, as long as it’s done properly:

We [need to make sure we] spend money wisely, and we also need to grow the pie. That involves productivity, that involves looking at Australia’s place in the world, in terms of economic complexity, which is hovering around Kazakhstan in terms of what we manufacture and how sophisticated our economy is.

Updated at 02.58 EDT

Nick Xenophon, who is both a former and an aspiring senator, is on the ABC. On running as an independent at the upcoming election, he says:

I am doing this not so much on a shoestring but a dental floss budget.

He once was lost, but now he’s found. Alan Tudge turns up, transport is on the cards, and Daniel Hurst and Jane Lee look at defence secrecy. Yes, it’s your Campaign catchup:

Updated at 02.52 EDT

Has today’s suburban rail announcement put you in a deja vu loop? Benita Kolovos looks at the history of the project:

Robert also says it’s “too late in the game” to accept an invitation to debate his shadow, Tanya Plibersek. It’s also Tuesday, he says. Voting has started. The last debate is on Wednesday.

(I’m just reporting what he said, I’m not going to try to explain it.)

Updated at 02.57 EDT

Kelly asks Robert:

The prime minister said that gender reassignment surgery is a significant issue that parents are concerned about. In this country, gender reassignment surgery is not available to adolescents and is only available to people over the age of 18. Is the prime minister misleading people? Is this an issue?”

Robert says it’s a “sensitive topic” and he thinks there may have been court decisions that allowed people under 18 to access surgery.

“A conversation is trying to be had,” he says:

Seek first to understand before being understood. Seek to understand the position that Australians find themselves in and let your words be seasoned with a bit of grace.

Updated at 02.29 EDT

The Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally MacManus, has been talking about the wage rises mentioned earlier, and says “any minimum wage increase below the inflation rate is a wage cut”.

The employment minister, Stuart Robert, has followed her on the ABC. He’s saying the Fair Work Commission will just make an independent decision and (I’m paraphrasing) there’s nothing the government can do about it.

Fran Kelly asks him: “But what does the government believe in?”

“An independent Fair Work Commission,” Robert replies.

Updated at 02.24 EDT