MARK DREYFUS MP

Attorney-General George Brandis has made the astonishing admission this afternoon that he personally approached a lawyer who represented his son and who has donated money to the Liberal National Party in order to offer him a senior role on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) with a salary of $370,000 per year for the next five years.

All Australians should be extremely concerned about revelations this afternoon that George Brandis appointed an LNP donor and lawyer who represented his son in court to a senior role on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) with a salary of $370,000 per year for the next five years.

Reports today of a scathing analysis by the Australian National Audit Office of the Government's flagship countering violent extremism program,Living Safe Together, are extremely concerning.

Today's judgment from the Full Court of the Federal Court that there are no grounds for George Brandis to continue to block my simple request for parts of his ministerial diary is a victory for transparency, accountability and common sense.

Prime Minister Turnbull was given repeated opportunities to stand up to Cory Bernardi and his right-wing cabal in Question Time today and rule out weakening protections against race hate speech. He failed.

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.