Stonewalling on Houston and other things we didn't learn on Right to Know day

Penny Wong says the PM should be 'brave enough' to say if he tried to get his mentor invited to the White House

Labor's Senate leader Penny Wong has blasted officials for stepping around questions about whether Scott Morrison's office attempted to have the Hillsong pastor Brian Houston attend a state dinner at the White House.

Officials from the prime minister's department and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, stonewalled during a Senate estimates hearing on Monday, declining to answer questions about Houston and the dinner on the basis the answers could be prejudicial to international relations. A series of questions were taken on notice.