Live: Canavan criticises treasurer's attempt to find ideas to boost productivity

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has criticised the treasurer's attempt to find ideas to boost national productivity in his department.

Follow all the updates in our live blog.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says the US midterm elections won't change the way Australia deals with President Donald Trump.

Democrats made big gains in Tuesday's midterm elections, taking control of Congress and winning several traditionally Republican-held senate seats.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the deputy prime minister says the government will work with the US to maintain and uphold the alliance.

"We live in a world today where we face a very challenging strategic landscape and in that context our alliance with the United States is critically important. So, it's our job to manage it," Marles says.

Asked if there were any lessons the government could learn from the US elections, Marles says cost of living remains the priority.

"We're obviously mindful of that. From our perspective, we are focused on what we can contribute to that, and that's the management of our own budget, which we do in a very prudent way," he says.

The aged care minister and Nationals leader have weighed into a court battle between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.

The High Court has agreed to hear Hanson's appeal against a finding she racially vilified Faruqi by telling her to "piss off back to Pakistan".

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has told Channel Nine he'd prefer discussion about those type of matters to happen in the parliament.

"I don't like it when these types of political disputes are settled through our courts. I'd prefer that to occur through the parliament and through political debate like we're having this morning," Canavan says.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae agrees and says he believes Australia has robust debate.

"None of us want to get involved in a legal process, but I do think we've got a healthy, robust debate here in our country. We want to protect that," Rae says.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan has criticised the treasurer's move to seek ideas to boost productivity from his department.

The Australian reports Treasurer Jim Chalmers has asked Treasury to develop new productivity ideas that can be included in this year's mid-year financial update.

Speaking to Channel Nine, the Nationals leader says the Coalition would cut taxes and scrap net zero to boost productivity.

"We have this joke of a treasurer asking for ideas about productivity. He had a productivity roundtable 18 months ago, but it didn't tackle the real issues. That's why productivity has continued to fall," Canavan says.

"What we would do is scrap net zero and get energy prices down. That will increase productivity because energy is the economy. We'll cut taxes. This government's increased them massively."

Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog. It's great to have you join us here early this Friday morning!

I'm Josh Boscaini, joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news.

I'm not quite sure what today has for us, so let's get this blog up and away and see what happens!