MARK DREYFUS MP

Labor welcomes the report launched today by the Hon. Fiona Richardson, Victorian Minister for Women and Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence into the legal challenges surrounding economic abuse Restoring Financial Safety: Legal Responses to Economic Abuse by Good Shepherd and Wyndham Legal Service.

Labor has called on the Abbott Government to restore a key advisory panel that examined how to reduce age discrimination against workers and jobseekers over 50.

Labor welcomes the appointment of Justice Michelle Gordon to the High Court of Australia.

I welcome the announcement of the completion of the new Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Labor has called on Attorney-General George Brandis to come clean on his cuts to the Indigenous Languages Support Program.

We mourn the death today of Betty Churcher, Director of the National Gallery of Australia from 1990 to 1997 - she was the National Gallery's first, and so far only, female director.

Labor calls on Senator Brandis to fully reverse his cruel cuts to legal assistance funding.

The Abbott Government's belated, characteristically chaotic decision to temporarily restore essential support services that support women experiencing family violence has only been made following damning feedback from emergency relief providers for victims of family violence.

The Abbott Government's cuts to Community Legal Centres are putting victims of family violence in danger by making it harder for them to seek help.

Labor welcomes the call by all State and Territory Attorney's-General for the Abbott Government to reconsider their current proposal for a national funding agreement for legal assistance.