MARK DREYFUS MP

Parliament is only just opened, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is already facing an open rebellion from his own conservative backbench bent on watering down protections against hate speech.

The revelations on last night's 4 Corners program of serious and repeated cyber security breaches of Australian government agencies and contractors are of deep concern to Labor.

There is no faster, fairer and simpler way to make marriage equality a reality than a vote in Parliament. Marriage equality could be achieved this week if Prime Minister Turnbull and his government actually wanted it enough to act.

It has only taken Attorney-General George Brandis three years, but he has finally caught up with Labor's proposed legislation for mandatory notification of consumers when their personal data has been breached.

Despite telling Australians in February he has no plans to change racist hate speech protections in Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Malcolm Turnbull today left the door open to changes.

Malcolm Turnbull's leadership is again in question today as more hard right-wing MPs call for the repeal of race hate laws, including a member of his own front bench.

The Attorney-General remains deaf to the brave calls of families of transgender children, and the children themselves, advocating for changes to the Family Law Act.

In the latest test of his leadership, Mr Turnbull must stand up and categorically condemn members of his own party who are once again attacking Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. And Mr Turnbull must rule out any dirty deal with the Senate cross bench in which our long-standing protections against racist hate speech become a bargaining chip.

Today I will appear in front of a bench of three judges in the Full Court of the Federal Court in Sydney, to once again argue the case for Senator Brandis to commit to basic transparency and release small parts of his diary under the Freedom of Information Act.

Malcolm Turnbull is facing yet another test of his leadership today with news the hard right-wing of the Liberal Party is in conversation with the Senate cross-bench about repealing Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.