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Australia news live: SA premier’s letter calling for Randa Abdel-Fattah to be dropped from writers’ festival released; Labor urges ‘unity’ after hate speech backdown

Follow updates liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor does not ‘share the concerns of the Greens’ on hate speech laws: GallagherSpeaking 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.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. Continue reading...