Coalition MPs slam leaders for about-face on Hanson motion

Marginal Coalition seat-holders have slammed the government for reversing its support for the ‘it’s OK to be white’ motion.

Nationals senator John Williams. Picture: AAP

Marginal Coalition seat-holders have hit out at the government for reversing its support for One ­Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s motion acknowledging “it’s OK to be white”, as Scott Morrison and senior colleagues were forced into damage control ahead of Saturday’s Wentworth by-election.

Retiring NSW Nationals senator John “Wacka” Williams conceded his side had been “outplayed in a political game” after the government’s backdown, which infuriated such Coalition MPs as Luke Howarth, George Christensen and Jim Molan.

The government yesterday voted with Labor and the Greens against the Hanson motion — which also recognised the “deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation” — less than 24 hours after it sided with One Nation to support it.

Mr Howarth, a lower house MP who agitated for the dumping of Malcolm Turnbull and holds the Queensland seat of Petrie on a margin of 1.65 per cent, said the government should have defended its initial support for the ­motion.

“They should have just come out and said straightforward that the reason that they voted for it is because when you read what ­Senator Hanson said, in itself, (it) is fine,” Mr Howarth told Sky News. The LNP backbencher said Labor had linked the phrase to white supremacist groups in the US in an attempt to change its meaning.

Mr Christensen, who holds the Queensland electorate of Dawson on 3.3 per cent, reiterated “it’s OK to be white” after the government voted against it in the Senate.

“It’s OK to be white. It’s OK to be Aboriginal. It’s OK to be Asian. It’s OK to be any ethnicity. If you’re for all of the above, good on you,” Mr Christensen said.

Senator Molan said the government looked “weak” in blaming its ­support for the motion on an ­administrative error.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said he took “full responsibility” and apologised for the saga after an email sent out from his staff directed ­Coalition senators on Monday to vote for the motion despite the government apparently deciding weeks ago it was ­opposed.

“(The email) went out without my knowledge. That appears to have happened because of the large number of motions on which my office’s views are routinely sought,” Mr Porter said.

“This one was not escalated to me because it was interpreted in my office as a motion opposing ­racism.

“The criticism of me and my ­office is a completely fair cop, and I accept and apologise for the process in my office.”

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong labelled the government’s excuse for supporting the motion a “pathetic attempt at a clean up”.

The government was trying to walk away from the “appalling” motion not because it was “wrong”, she said, but because it was trying to save the former prime minister’s blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth.

Like Mr Howarth, Senator Hanson said the phrase “it’s OK to be white” was not a white supremacist slogan and accused others of “turning” it into racism.

She said she had heard the phrase used in media reports.

“People have made it into a white supremacist slogan. What if I put up on the floor of parliament (and said) ‘it’s OK to be black’? What would happen then? Would they actually vote for it? I think they would’ve,” Senator Hanson said.

The Anti-Defamation League in the US said the phrase had a “fairly long history in the white ­supremacist movement” and had been in use since the early 2000s.