Live: Nine politicians get electorate office security upgrades after Haines attack

Key Event

The way Australia buys weapons and defence gear is getting a major overhaul, with former Rio Tinto chief Kellie Parker hired to run the country's new Defence Delivery Agency.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy will announce today that Parker will become the new National Armaments Director — effectively making her Australia's chief weapons buyer.

For decades, defence procurement has been bogged down by massive budget blowouts and severe delays. To fix this, the Albanese government is transforming its purchasing division into an independent agency — known as the Defence Delivery Agency — starting July 2027.

By hiring a veteran mining executive accustomed to delivering complex, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure under strict commercial pressures, the government is hoping to inject real-world business discipline into the ADF.

Parker takes on the role in November 2026 before the agency goes fully live in July 2027.

Key Event

The NACC says it has not ruled out an investigation into a contentious government grant scheme that saw a golf club in the PM's electorate get $6m dollars, but is putting any decision on hold until other parliamentary inquiries into the program conclude.

Appearing before Senate estimates, National Anti-Corruption Commission acting commissioner Kylie Kilgour confirmed the agency has received referrals regarding the $560 million Local Community Infrastructure program.

The scheme has faced intense scrutiny after analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity found it heavily favoured Labor electorates.

Kilgour said the scheme had "piqued" her interest but ultimately the watchdog would wait on the outcomes of a parliamentary inquiry and a potential audit by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) before taking further action.

"If you've got another integrity agency conducting a process, it's not necessarily appropriate for us to come in," Kilgour noted, adding that the NACC was "not there yet" in determining whether it holds statutory jurisdiction.

During the hearing, Kilgour also paid tribute to independent MP Helen Haines — a prominent critic of the grant scheme and a key architect of the NACC. She remains in hospital after being attacked outside her electorate office last week.

Key Event

Snowy Hydro made a late appearance at yesterday's senate estimates, where company representatives were grilled over the latest cost blow out for Australia's biggest renewable energy project.

It was revealed last week that the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project will now cost $22-$25 billion and be delayed another year.

The cost has doubled since a 2023 project reset, where Snowy Hydro and the contractor building the project moved to a revised contract; which includes penalties for poor performance relating to cost and schedule.

Snowy Hydro CEO Dennis Barnes says the increase in cost is mainly due to flaws in the initial design and that there's been significant progress since the new contract model was adopted.

"In 2023, the advice of myself and the Snowy board…was to reset this contract to an ITC model, get progress moving again and we saw progress did double over that period," he said.

Barnes also said the federal government would need to contribute a "substantial proportion" of the extra $10b required to complete the project but that discussions around exactly how much were still underway.

The new election funding regime previously had its start date delayed because the Australian Electoral Commission said getting it up and running was a complicated task.

And little wonder: it's a whole new system, with donations to be disclosed in close to real time, and with caps now to apply to candidates, parties and donors.

But in what AEC commissioner Jeff Pope says is a "near miracle", the complicated technical system to make all of that work is now ready to roll from its mooted start date of January 1, 2027.

The next step will be to work with political parties and candidates to make sure they understand how to use the new system. Liberal senator James McGrath, a keen follower of electoral matters, sounds doubtful that it will all be so seamless. But in theory at least, it should be full steam ahead.

The AFP held a security briefing for politicians just two days after the attack on independent MP Helen Haines, and it seems tangible outcomes are already afoot.

Nine electorate offices are now having security concerns actioned after they were raised last week, according to the Department of Finance.

In a late-night Senate estimates hearing, Finance secretary Matt Yannopoulos explains how the system works.

The AFP handles threat assessments and security details, Home Affairs does home security for those eligible, and Finance handles offices and transport. All three co-ordinate and share information.

"Where there's an ask for something to be upgraded, we go about that as quickly as possible, and indeed from the discussions that occurred last week there are nine different offices that are raised and we are dealing with those," Yannopoulos tells the committee.

Hello friends. Welcome to our politics live blog. I'm Courtney Gould from the ABC's Parliament House team, here to guide you through the day.

Senate estimates is in full swing yet again today, with bureaucrats and officials making their way up to Parliament House in Canberra for another day of questioning.

Last night we heard nine parliamentarians would receive security upgrades to their electoral offices after they raised concerns in the wake of the alleged attack on Helen Haines last week.

Meanwhile, the lower house will return to its scheduled businesses after yesterday's pause to share messages of support for the independent MP.

I've got lots to catch you up on, so let's get blogging!