Prayers for new parliamentary year

Parliament will be brought to its knees on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will join Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and MPs at the opening church service in Canberra to start the parliamentary year.

The Senate and House of Representatives will resume after a two-month break with the government seeking to focus on budget savings and tackling corruption in the building industry.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will reintroduce a bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission - an industry watchdog abolished by Labor.

However, she will have to convince Senate crossbenchers of the merits of her bill, drawing on the results of the unions royal commission final report released on December 30.

The government is also hoping to quickly move into debate on changes to social security benefits and allowances to save the budget almost $600 million over four years.

The senate will receive inquiry reports on Tuesday into flag-of-convenience shipping, firearms trafficking and forestry managed investment schemes.

It is understood a review of the parliamentary entitlements system, commissioned last August following the Bronwyn Bishop scandal, is due to be issued shortly.

The review will make recommendations on how to reduce ambiguity and better deal with alleged misuse of entitlements.