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.

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.