Question time LIVE: Matt Canavan elected new leader of the National Party; two more Iranian women seek asylum

The federal Liberal Party is in a death spiral due to its shrinking “grumpy, old and very right wing” support base, its support for immigration and climate policies championed by One Nation and its capture by conservative “angertainment” media outlets, according to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

He said he expects the party is likely to cut a preference deal with One Nation in the upcoming Farrer byelection, seen as a crucial test of new Liberal leader Angus Taylor, which would be “poison” in urban seats of the sort already lost to Teal independents.

This would be one of the “final nails” in the coffin of the Liberal Party, said Turnbull, but he did not rule out “the vampire” somehow escaping.

Turnbull told an audience at the Climate Action Week Sydney conference this morning that the Liberal Party’s decision to focus on One Nation’s issues, such as immigration, was destroying the party because it elevated those issues in the minds of parts of the electorate, which then chose to back One Nation over Liberals.

This was not only a danger to the broader community because it amplified divisive and destructive ideas, but to the Liberal Party which had not only lost urban seats, but a generation of talented potential candidates.

He said the presence of Teal MPs like Allegra Spender or Sophie Scamps in his cabinet would have improved its intellectual firepower as it tackled crucial issues like tax reform and climate change, to the benefit of the nation and the party.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed two additional members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation have been granted asylum, while one player wavered until the last minute before eventually deciding to board a flight out of the country in dramatic scenes at Sydney Airport.

Burke said that Home Affairs officials had met privately with all the players and support staff to explain their legal rights to seek protection in Australia before their departure to Kuala Lumpur late on Tuesday night.

Two women – a player and a member of the team’s support staff – stayed behind in Brisbane on Tuesday and have since been reunited with the five players who escaped from their handlers on Monday night.

The player who decided to stay on Tuesday has been identified as Mohaddeseh Zolfi, a 21-year-old forward. The support staffer is Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar.

You can read the full story from foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott here.

Working Australians would share in almost $30 billion worth of tax cuts under a plan from teal independent Allegra Spender that would drive up the tax paid by asset-rich residents, including many from her own wealthy electorate in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Spender, in the first tax white paper from an individual MP this century, said a person on $100,000 would be $1643 a year better off (almost $32 a week) under her proposals, which would slice 2.5 percentage points from each personal income tax rate.

But to pay for the ambitious plan, Spender has proposed overhauling capital gains tax and negative gearing while introducing a minimum tax rate aimed specifically at family trusts, which are often used to minimise income taxes.

Unveiling the proposal at the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon, Spender will say the current tax system was broken, with working people paying much more tax than those who relied on assets.

You can read the full story from senior economics correspondent Shane Wright 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.