MARK DREYFUS MP

The Coalition's past three years have caused confusion and chaos throughout the arts sector. The Coalition's arts policy has been to cut arts funding and compromise the independence of the Australia Council.

Labor in government will rebuild trust and confidence in the arts trust and confidence which has been trashed by the Abbott-Turnbull Government.

Labor will ensure all roles at the Human Rights Commission are appropriately filled with the right people for those important jobs, and stand back and let the Commissioners do their job

Only a Royal Commission can examine whether existing laws are adequate and whether the regulators have the powers and resources they need to address the systemic problems that are so clearly evident in our financial system, and to suggest steps to restore the public's trust in our financial sector.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull has presided over one of the most significant outbreaks of hateful, ugly anti-LGBTI rhetoric coming from our politicians in recent memory in Australia. Not from external sources, but from inside his own party.

CSIRO is not a glorified consultancy. It is not a start-up looking only to maximise profit opportunities. It is one of the most important scientific institutions in the world with an obligation to do research that is in the long-term public interest, not just the short-term interests of the private sector.

Making the right choices goes right to the core of the attorney-general's responsibility to maintain the integrity of our legal system. It is right that those who hold that office are held to account for these choices.

Abbott and his attorney general should learn something from the fate of the Newman government and immediately abandon their attack on the rights of Australians and the rule of law.

Australia wants governments with the ability to weather criticism with dignity, that have the integrity not to attack those institutions we have put deliberately beyond their control. Abbott and his ministers should be ashamed of themselves.

The vast majority of the Australian public have made it clear that they utterly reject Brandis' deeply misguided views about bigotry in public debate.

Australians from all sides of politics should be proud of the principled position our nation has taken against commercial whaling, a position we have fought for since the time of Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke. And Australians from all sides of politics should be proud that with this legal victory we have brought an end to Japan's whaling program - a program that has killed over 10,000 whales under the guise of scientific research.