Fraser Anning refuses to apologise for racist maiden speech as leaders unite to condemn him
FRASER Anning’s party leader Bob Katter has “1000 per cent” backed the senator’s maiden speech, which called for a return to the White Australia policy and an end to Muslim migration.
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FRASER Anning’s party leader Bob Katter has unleashed in a bizarre rant defending the senator’s maiden speech, in which he called for a return to the White Australia policy and an end to Muslim migration.
It comes after a majority of MPs, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten, united to condemn Senator Anning’s “appalling,” racist speech in Parliament today.
The Katter Australia Party leader backed his colleague “1000 per cent” this afternoon, called his speech “absolutely magnificent” and said it was “everything the country should be doing”.
Mr Katter then made a series of bizarre statements, including lashing out at a journalist who asked whether his grandfather, who was born in Lebanon, would have been blocked from entering Australia under Anning’s proposal for the nation’s immigration laws.
He also blasted Jewish MP Josh Frydenberg for condemning Senator Anning’s use of the Nazi term “the final solution,” saying the senator hadn’t been to university and did not know the term’s connotations.
The KAP leader insisted his party wasn’t anti-Semitic and said Mr Frydenberg “should be ashamed to call himself a member of his own race and his own religious persuasion.”
He also claimed that Muslims in Australia were persecuting Jewish people as he backed Anning’s call on a migration ban.
Senator Anning, who joined KAP after leaving One Nation, has refused to apologise for the remarks as he copped a barrage of criticism today, including from his ex-boss Pauline Hanson who said he went “too far” and his speech was “appalling”.
Prime Minister Turnbull labelled the speech “appalling” and shameful, saying his use of the Nazi term “the final solution” was a “shocking insult” to six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
The Prime Minister and Opposition leader Bill Shorten both delivered powerful speeches in Parliament today to reject Senator Anning’s remarks.
“It’s important always to call out racism. We need to call it out,” Mr Turnbull said in his speech to Parliament this morning.
“We need to stand up for what we are — a free society, the most successful multicultural society in the world, united by democratic values that do not distinguish between race, religion, colour, cultural background.
“We should all here be proud of this and condemn … racism and discrimination of the kind so regrettably expressed, so shamefully expressed by Senator Anning.”
He added: “Those who tried to demonise Muslims because of the crimes of a tiny minority are only helping the terrorists.”
Mr Turnbull also said: “The reference in Senator Anning’s speech to ‘the Final Solution’ is a shocking insult to the memory of over six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.:
“The reference to the Final Solution in that speech was appalling, and we condemn that and the insult it offered to the memory of those Jewish martyrs, just as we condemn the racism, the shocking rejection of the Australian values that have made us the successful multicultural nation that we are today.”
Mr Shorten also addressed Parliament with a powerful speech against racism, saying: “What he seeks to do, when he undermines our national harmony, when he says some Australians are better Australians than other Australians, he risks weakening our national security.”
In a rare show of unity, he and the Prime Minister shook hands after their speeches rejecting racism and division.
“Senator Anning’s speech boiled down to one big lie about Australia, that every challenge we face can be blamed on our newest arrivals, that all of our problems can be solved by turning back the clock and closing ourselves off from the world,” the Labor leader said.
“But here is the truth about Australia. We are a nation made great by immigration. We are strong because we are diverse, we are richer, smarter, more interesting, more prosperous destination because of the people who have built a new life here.”
Mr Shorten also ridiculed Senator Anning’s claim that he was taken out of context when he used the “the final solution” in his maiden speech.
“It’s a phrase torn from the darkest pages of human history. Two words which speak of the brutalisation and murder of millions, two words that evokes fear, grief and trauma and loss,” Mr Shorten said.
“The senator ridicules his critics by saying these words need to be seen in their context. That is exactly the problem. This wasn’t a piece of Twitter stupidity composed in haste. It was a first speech nine months in the making.
“The context of these words is prejudice, it is a speech filled with prejudice. And this, like everything else, deserves nothing but condemnation.”
The Opposition leader added: “What makes a good Australian is not what God you worship, not where your ancestors come from or how much money you have. It is not your skin colour, your postcode, your occupation or your gender.”
“What makes a good Australian is what is in your heart. Are you a good neighbour? Do you raise your family, do you pay your taxes, do you obey the law? Good Australians are not just born, they can become good Australians by choice.
“Good Australians are people who stand up for minorities, for the less powerful, for the fair go all-round.”
HANSON: FRASER ANNING’S GONE ‘TOO FAR’
Pauline Hanson says she was “appalled” by Fraser Anning’s maiden speech and that he went “too far” by using Nazi term “the final solution” and all but calling for a return to a White Australia policy and an end to Muslim migration.
The One Nation leader has dubbed her former colleague’s comments “unacceptable” and says she could take offence from people calling them “Pauline Hanson on steroids”.
“I was appalled at his comments and remarks,” Senator Hanson told Parliament this morning as she backed a motion by Labor MP Penny Wong condemning Anning’s speech.
The Senator hit out at fellow senators who have previously called her a racist and told them not to blame her for Senator Anning’s speech.
MORE: Fraser Anning’s speech — what he actually said
“I have always advocated for equality right across the board for everyone in this country,” Senator Hanson said.
“I have my views about different things and I have made them quite clear on the floor of Parliament, which a lot of Australians support.
“But I do believe Senator Anning went too far in his maiden speech yesterday. It is unacceptable. It is not One Nation policy and I do not stand by this.”
MUSLIM MP BREAKS DOWN IN EMOTIONAL SPEECH
Labor MP Anne Aly, Australia’s first female Muslim MP, broke down in Parliament today as she spoke out against Senator Anning’s speech.
“I’m tired. I’m tired of having to stand up against hate, against vilification time and time and again,” Dr Aly said in her speech.
“It means something that all of us here stand up against this racism, stand up against this hatred, and stand up against the disgraceful, disgraceful use of that terminology, that neo-Nazi, white supremacist terminology.
“It wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t an accident, I won’t accept that that was an accident.”
Labor MP Anne Aly: I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired. I’m tired of having to stand up against hate and vilification time and time again.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) August 15, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/3uImsACvcM #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/yFNlNJQhNt
She was one of dozens of MPs to publicly condemn Senator Anning’s speech today, including Labor frontbencher Senator Wong who accused him of provoking racism, prejudice and dividing Australians in a fiery speech this morning.
With her voice shaking, an outraged Senator Wong said his remarks were “not worthy of this Parliament” and “did not reflect the heart of this country”.
She also spoke of her personal experience with racism, saying: “Those of us who have been on the receiving end of racism know what it feels like and know what leaders say matters.”
Senator Anning walked out of the chamber part way through her speech.
The senate passed a censure motion against his speech this morning.
JEWISH MP BLASTS ‘FINAL SOLUTION’ REMARK
Earlier today, senior Turnbull Government minister Josh Frydenberg ripped into him for referencing the Nazi term “the final solution”.
Mr Frydenberg, whose mother was a survivor of the Holocaust, slammed the Queensland senator’s remarks this morning as “ignorant”, “insensitive” and “extremely hurtful”.
“One and a half million children lost their lives in the Holocaust — and Fraser Anning is a father — let alone the ten million people that were killed by the Nazis, of which six million were Jews,” the Energy Minister told Sky News today.
“These comments are completely unacceptable, they’re extremely hurtful, they’re extremely ignorant and he has no excuse and needs to quickly apologise.”
Mr Frydenberg called on Senator Anning to apologise immediately and visit a Holocaust museum to hear from survivors “how the pain is still raw and to see the devastation and destruction by the Nazi war machine”.
He also dubbed the senator’s call to end Muslim migration “ridiculous” and urged him to retract the remarks.
ANNING DUBS CRITICS ‘A JOKE’
Senator Anning, who was only appointed to the Senate as a replacement for One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts and received just 19 primary votes in the 2016 election, hit back at critics this morning, saying his remark had been taken out of context by “the thought police”.
He argued he was a strong supporter of the Jewish community and it was a “joke” for people to take him out of context and “try and shutdown debate”.
Senator Anning also told Sky News he was “quite happy” to cop widespread criticism for the remarks, including from the Prime Minister and the bulk of Parliament.
When asked by 3AW host Neil Mitchell if he was supporting a return to White Australia, he said: “It should be the right of the Australian people to have a say on who enters this country. When (Whitlam) and his hard left cronies brought in (migrants who) clearly don’t integrate, he didn’t ask Australian people and no government since then has asked the Australian people how they want to see their country and what their society will look like … They’re completely separated from reality, Mr Turnbull and some of the others, they don’t understand what the Australian people want and 100 per cent of the people that I know would definitely not want to have people who do not integrate with us.”
“I personally and I know that majority of people that I know would not want any more Muslim immigration to this country. The people in the south of France who were run over by a terrorist in a truck, people who were shot in Paris. Ask those sorts of people: would they like to be able to turn back the clock and not have those people in their country?”
“What’s been particularly offensive is using the term ‘final solution’ — a term of course used in relation to the mass killing of Jews in Nazi Germany. How is that sort of language helpful? Did you intend to be racist and hateful?” Gardner asked when Anning appeared on the Nine Network this morning.
“I didn’t even think about that Georgie, funnily enough,” Anning responded, while noting that he knew Mr Frydenberg had “had a go” at him for the comments.
“The fact is all I said was ‘The final solution to the immigration problem is a vote of the Australian people’ — that has nothing to do with ‘the final solution’, the thought police got onto that.”
Asked if he would apologise, Senator Anning said: “Absolutely not.”
“Good men died for our right to say whatever we want to say and use whatever words we want to use,” he said.
“If people want to take it out of context that’s entirely up to them. It was never meant to denigrate the Jewish community and it’s two words and if that offends anyone unfortunately that’s the way it has to be.”
Senator Anning also doubled down on his call to ban Muslim migration.
“If 5 per cent of them aren’t good people who want to integrate and work with us in Australia and we’re bringing in another 1000 that means there’s another 50 here that want to kill us. I don’t want those people in this country. I think the vast majority of Australians agree with me but no-one wants to put it to a vote,” he told the Nine Network.
Senator Anning defended the provocative remarks when asked if they detracted from a constructive debate about immigration policy, saying: “A discussion is not getting much done. We’re being flooded by immigrants. Our infrastructure isn’t keeping up.”
“We need to be concentrating on doing things like infrastructure building projects and getting people back to work.”
Senator Anning said he wasn’t worried about being compared to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
He quit One Nation within an hour of being sworn in to the Senate last year to replace Mr Roberts and is now a member of Katter’s Australia Party.
Several other senior ministers have also condemned the racist remarks, along with Labor MPs and the Greens.
“Australia is the most successful multicultural society in the world built on a foundation of mutual respect. We reject and condemn racism in any form,” Mr Turnbull tweeted last night.
Mr Shorten described the comments as “repugnant and disgraceful”.
“There is no place in our Parliament for these outdated and racist views,” he said.
Independent senator Derryn Hinch described the speech as “excruciating” and “Pauline Hanson on steroids”.
“There was hardly a group of Australians he did not offend unless you were very close to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan,” he told ABC radio.
Around 1942, the Nazi leadership established a plan called “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, which led to the mass genocide of Jewish people in occupied Europe.
— with AAP
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