St Kilda rally: Fraser Anning billed taxpayers for attending
Fraser Anning says he billed taxpayers for flights and a Comcar ride to attend yesterday’s far-right rally in Melbourne.
Fraser Anning says he billed taxpayers for flights and a Comcar ride to attend yesterday’s far-right rally in Melbourne, where he joined neo-Nazi activists in condemning Sudanese immigrants.
The independent Senator said the trip represented official parliamentary business, declaring “I didn’t go there for a picnic”.
“I wasn’t going down there for fun. I travelled down there representing the people of Queensland,” he said.
“A lot of them are very concerned about what is happening in Melbourne because now it is spreading to Queensland.
“We’re having these Sudanese gangs belting people up and robbing old ladies and things like that here in Queensland. A lot of that is as a result that nothing has been done to the people down there (in Melbourne).
Senator Anning said he flew from Brisbane to Melbourne, returning the same day, charging the flights to taxpayers.
He also caught a Comcar from Melbourne Airport to St Kilda Beach, where he joined convicted extremist Blair Cottrell, head of the far right United Patriots Front, in protesting against “garbage like these Sudanese thugs”.
He said he believed the spending was justified but would consult parliamentary authorities on the legitimacy of the claim when parliament resumed.
Senator Anning dug his heels in this afternoon over the rally, tweeting: “Imagine if the Queensland and Victorian Labor Governments, all the screeching leftists in the media and elsewhere spent as much energy .. preventing rampant crime .. by African gangs and Muslim terrorists?”
Imagine if the Queensland and Victorian Labor Governments, all the screeching leftists in the media and elsewhere spent as much energy and outrage on preventing rampant crime and violence caused by African gangs and Muslim terrorists?
— Senator Fraser Anning (@fraser_anning) January 6, 2019
He made the admission as Josh Frydenberg joined the chorus of protests from federal MPs attacking Senator Anning’s presence at the rally, where he posted a video of himself with far right extremist Blair Cottrell.
“Fraser Anning’s appearance was unacceptable and he should not have participated in this divisive event,”the Treasurer said.
“We have an independent parliamentary entitlements authority and that would be a matter for them.”
Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said taxpayers would be appalled at Senator Anning’s decision to claim the trip on his parliamentary expenses.
“I really think he should reconsider that,” she said.
“It’s a very poor use of taxpayers’ money. I think the vast majority of Australians would be disgusted to think that their taxes are paying for an Australian Senator to attend an event that seeks to divide not to unite the country.”
Ms Plibersek said Scott Morrison should specifically criticise Senator Anning and called the senator’s attendance at the far-right rally “disgusting.”
“I think the attendance at the rally of Fraser Anning - I think it’s disgusting,” he said.
“Scott Morrison has criticised the rally - I’m very pleased he’s criticised the rally.
“He also has to criticise Fraser Anning for going to such a thing, to criticise Fraser Anning for attending a rally that’s been organised by people with a known record of seeking to divide Australians, not bring them closer together.”
Mr Shorten did not criticise Senator Anning in his statement on the St Kilda rallies either.
Mr Plibersek said she was concerned that the government had “relied” on Senator Anning’s vote in the senate but she did not outright call on them to refuse his support.
“People make demands in return for their support. I would hate to think that this Government owed Fraser Anning anything for the votes that he has provided them in the Senate.,” she said.
“It’s problematic if the Government have to agree to any of the sorts of demands that he is likely to make.”
The independent Queensland senator, who was dumped by Katter’s Australian Party for his views on race after defecting from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, stood with convicted extremist Blair Cottrell, head of the far right United Patriots Front, and posted videos of the pair on his Facebook page.
But fellow parliamentarians attacked his appearance at the rally. Fellow crossbencher Derryn Hinch said Senator Anning’s behaviour was “repugnant” while Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young described it as “inexcusable.”
“The government should refuse to take Fraser Anning’s vote after he has shown again he is unfit to be in Parliament. Hanging out and supporting with neo-Nazis who are inciting violence is inexcusable,” Senator Hanson-Young tweeted.
The Government should refuse to take Fraser Anning’s vote in the Senate after he has shown again he is unfit to be in the Parliament. Hanging out and supporting with neo-nazi who are inciting violence is inexcusable.
— Sarah Hanson-Young💚 (@sarahinthesen8) January 5, 2019
In his videos, Senator Anning praised the rally and made inflammatory remarks about migration. “I’m here representing a lot of people from Queensland who wish they could be here,” Senator Anning said in one video. “This rally is Australian people showing their disgust with the Australian government for allowing garbage like these Sudanese thugs coming into our country and … attacking us in our own country.”
Police warn of more violence today
A day after stemming violence on St Kilda’s foreshore between right-wing extremists and anti-racism campaigners, police will have a strong presence at another Melbourne event.
Officers will patrol the Lunar New Year festival in St Albans today to prevent anti-social behaviour.
Some of the participants in the right-wing protest at St Kilda yesterday have suggested on social media they would show up to the event in the northwest of Melbourne.
Hundreds of police spent most of the day at the popular St Kilda Beach on Saturday keeping the opposing groups apart, with three people arrested and others detained and moved on.
Officers from the riot, dog and transit branches of Victoria Police backed up regular and mounted police, searching for weapons among the crowd. Police reportedly used capsicum spray to subdue some people.
Officers on horseback also chased one group of anti-immigrant protesters to the beach and kept them isolated.
Three people were arrested, police said, and several others detained during the duelling protests.
One person was arrested for possessing drugs, another for breaching bail and a third for carrying weapons — large fishing sinkers — according to Victoria Police’s Superintendent Tony Silva.
Officers also detained several people who were then released to try to prevent them causing trouble at the tightly-controlled rallies on the foreshore.
“I certainly felt we had it under control,” Supt Silva told reporters.
The anti-immigration group chanted “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” while the counter protesters yelled “Migrants welcome, racists are not”. After speeches from both sides, the opposing groups dispersed on to nearby streets and to the front of Luna Park, with minor scuffles breaking out.
Police began dispersing soon after 4pm.
While the day had been a “challenge’’, Supt Silva said to his knowledge, there were no injuries to members of the public or police. “So, to me, that’s a very successful day.”
Supt Silva said it had taken “a lot of police resources to control this protest … people have a right to protest. This is their human right as people have a right to walk along the St Kilda foreshore.”
More than 300 people came for the rallies, the first held at 12pm by anti-racism campaigners ahead of an anti-immigration event, and were watched by hundreds of curious spectators.
When the conflict spilt on to the road near the beach, a small truck with speakers was broadcasting a slogan “Sudanese are welcome, racists are not”, ABC News reported.
Rival groups circled each other, yelling and shouting, it said.
Police are reportedly investigating after a generator powering the speakers was seized and dumped up a hill.
Victoria Police said in a statement an 18-year-old man from a Melbourne suburb was arrested at St Kilda after being found with an unspecified “dangerous article”, later said to be the sinkers.
“The Sunbury man was interviewed and will be charged on summons with possessing a dangerous article. He was given a direction by police to move away,” Victoria Police said in a statement.
“Victoria Police respects people’s right to protest peacefully, but will not tolerate those who break the law.”
Police had been at the popular Melbourne spot for hours in the lead-up to a rally of far-right extremists organised by convicted pair Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson, who had called his rally a “political meeting at St Kilda beach’’.
Videos posted to social media appeared to show demonstrators hurling abuse at each other, while police removed individuals who appeared to make hand gestures to the opposing demonstrators, SBS News reported.
Mr Erikson criticised Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews.
“The Andrews government is so weak it’s not funny,” Mr Erikson told reporters. “And the police commissioner and his or her offsider are a joke.”
A spokesperson from the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF) group Tess Dimos told SBS the group wanted to ensure that “fascists can’t mobilise a rally of supporters, or incite racist mob violence, without people coming out en masse to oppose them”.
“Our message that people have come out in solidarity with the African community which has been the target of racial abuse and harassment, that we won’t stand by while fascists and racists parade along our beaches, and making it clear their gathering and the individuals organising it aren’t just random ‘concerned citizens’ but are neo-Nazis and violent thugs,” she said.
The group claims to be meeting to “discuss” Melbourne’s youth crime. That event sparked an anti-racism rally to be held along the same foreshore at the same time in response.
Mr Cottrell has claimed Saturday’s turnout by his group, perhaps 150 people against about 300 anti-racism people, as a success.
Rally massive success, up to 500 in attendance. Dwarfed Antifa and only a few from the African community showed, they kept their distance.
— Blair Cottrell 🇦🇺 (@blaircottrell89) January 5, 2019
STATE PREMIER DANIEL ANDREWS must address this violent crime epidemic or we will rally again, next time outside his office.
Mr Cottrell and Mr Erikson in 2017 were convicted and fined in the Magistrates Court for inciting contempt and ridicule of Muslims by making a video in which they beheaded a dummy with a toy sword in a protest against the building of the Bendigo mosque. Mr Cottrell is appealing.
The pair say the rally is a response to recent incidents in which youths have mugged people along the bay.
However, Mr Erikson also last week confronted a group of young men of African background who were playing soccer at St Kilda, prompting police intervention. St Kilda and nearby Caulfield, areas with high Jewish populations, have also experienced a blitz of anti-Semitic vandalism.
#StKilda is an area of Melbourne where many Jewish refugees have historically settled. Today we had racists actually giving Nazi salutes there as they protested against immigrants, especially those from Africa. A senator of the Australian govt attended and supported these people. pic.twitter.com/vJ1GOoKFNU
— Jacky Hewitt (@drjackyhewitt) January 5, 2019
The Emmy Monash Jewish aged-care centre in Caulfield was plastered with a swastika by neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance and a theatre was graffitied in recent days.
“We are appalled by this latest attack, made all the more despicable as there are Holocaust survivors living in this aged-care home who lost family relatives and suffered under Hitler’s regime,” Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said.
“These cowardly and evil acts of vandalism, which are an affront to all Victorians, need to end now.”
Emmy Monash Aged Care Home for Jewish ppl - including many Holocaust survivors - has had swastikas painted on it today. We’re going to go scrub them off after this. #StandUpStKilda
— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) January 5, 2019
Facebook events set up to promote yesterday’s rally described it as “Romper Stomper 2.0”, a reference to the Australian film about neo-Nazis, prompting police to issue a warning.
Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan said later there was no place in Australia for the “apparent racist” rally.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the apparent racist and race-based motivation behind the rally. There is no place for such rallies in Australia,” he said in a statement.
“Activities that target a community based on their race or ethnicity are unacceptable and have no place in a cohesive, multicultural Australia.”
With AAP
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