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Newly minted Senator Jim Molan, who has been at the centre of a week-long row over Britain First Facebook posts, has retreated from this threat to hit fellow MP Adam Bandt with a lawsuit, but only after he forced two apologies from the Greens representative.

The member for Melbourne said Senator Molan, a retired major general who was chief of operations in Iraq in the mid 2000s, would "probably be up for prosecution" if there was ever a review into his conduct on the battlefield. That prompted a furious response from Senator Molan, who threated to sue Mr Bandt for defamation unless he apologised.

On Thursday Mr Bandt said: "I hereby apologise for those statements". But Senator Molan said that was not good enough and warned he was still considering legal action. On Friday Mr Bandt issued a second apology and said he would make a donation to a veterans support organisation.

"I wish to publicly say that I was wrong to make such accusations and inferences against Senator Molan," Mr Bandt said in a statement.