MARK DREYFUS MP

The announcement of a parliamentary inquiry today into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act shows just how weak Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's leadership is.

Last night the Senate voted down Malcolm Turnbull's $200 million wasteful, hurtful, divisive plebiscite on marriage equality.

Malcolm Turnbull has once again demonstrated his inability to stand up to the far right of his party, signalling this morning that he will support a Parliamentary inquiry into Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Federal Labor has concerns about the Turnbull Government's proposed opt-in redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.

George Brandis's hear no evil, see no evil approach to his day job of Attorney-General continues to defy believeability.

The government must immediately come clean on what and when it knew about the potential invalidity of Bob Day's election to the Australian Senate.

Senator Brandis's statement this afternoon that Senator Culleton's election may also be invalid raises more questions than it answers.

This morning Prime Minister Turnbull once again opened the door to watering down race hate laws, proving he is incapable of listening to the Australian community who have told him loudly and clearly that they do not want change.

Labor welcomes today's long-awaited allocation of funds for domestic violence legal services announced during the election campaign, but it does not go far enough to reverse the destructive cuts already inflicted by the Abbott-Turnbull Government.

Labor welcomes today's announcement that the Australian Law Reform Commission will undertake an inquiry into incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians, but calls for immediate action to address Indigenous justice issues.