Australia news live: Labor urges ‘unity’ from Ley after hate speech backdown; NSW dog owners face jail for leaving pets in cars

Katy Gallagher says opposition leader needs to follow through when legislation is debated on Tuesday. Follow updates live

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Speaking at Parliament House in Canberra, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, says she has spoken with the Coalition and the Greens Senate managers ahead of this week’s special sittings.

Labor has done a deal with the Greens to pass legislation establishing a gun buyback scheme and creating a legal framework to officially designated hate groups operating in the community.

We don’t share the concerns of the Greens on that one, and we’ve made that clear to them in the last week.

The elements of the bill that exist without the racial vilification still have very strong purpose around combating antisemitism, and that is why many of these groups, including neo-Nazis, have foreshadowed they are going disband, once they saw this exposure draft bill.

The PM has been clear about this from the get go, that we need to get something from the opposition. We haven’t had anything to date, and we need to make sure that the parliament does deal with this legislation in a way that ensures Australians are safer.

Australians want to see unity. They want to see agreement. They want to see the parliament working together, and that’s the approach we’re taking to the sitting.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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