Australian senator’s speech condemned
CANBERRA: The Australian Parliament has united in fury and determination to condemn unrepentant Queensland senator Fraser Anning for his speech in the upper house on Tuesday praising the White Australia policy and attacking Muslim immigration.
But despite the strong criticism from across politics, the Katter’s Australian Party MP has the ‘‘1000%’’ support of his leader.
Senator Anning is also refusing to apologise for calling for a ‘‘final solution’’ on immigration, a comment that has angered Jewish groups and MPs.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten gave passionate speeches in Parliament opposing Anning yesterday before sharing a handshake across the dispatch box.
‘‘Those who try to demonise Muslims because of the crimes of a tiny minority are only helping the terrorists,’’ Turnbull told Parliament.
The exOne Nation senator’s first speech in the upper house drew support from his party boss despite the controversy.
‘‘Absolutely, 1000% I support everything he said . . . it was a magnificent speech,’’ Bob Katter told reporters.
But Pauline Hanson said her former MP’s speech was straight from Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels’ handbook.
‘‘I am appalled by Fraser Anning’s speech. We are a multiracial society and I’ve always advocated you do not have to be white to be Australian,’’ Hanson told Parliament, having flagged a national plebiscite on ‘‘too high’’ migration levels.
Senior minister Josh Frydenberg, whose parents were Jewish immigrants and whose Hungarian mother escaped the Holocaust, said he was disgusted by the speech and the ‘‘final solution’’ comment.
But Anning says his speech has been misinterpreted and is unapologetic about using a phrase coined by Nazi leaders in World War 2 to describe their plan to murder Jewish people on an industrial scale.
‘‘If people want to take it out of context that’s entirely up to them,’’ he told the Nine Network.
Anning also linked Muslim communities to terrorism and said Australia’s immigration should discriminate in favour of Europeans.
Senator Derryn Hinch said he felt like he was at a ‘‘Ku Klux Klan rally’’ during Anning’s speech, which he described as excruciating and ‘‘Pauline Hanson on steroids’’.