Both sides of Parliament have condemned Fraser Anning for a speech in which he used Nazi rhetoric and advocated for a return to the White Australia Policy.
In his maiden speech to Parliament, the Queensland Senator called for a total overhaul of Australia’s immigration system, insisting that Australia return to an ethnically homogenous society of European Christians.
In the speech, Senator Anning used the phrase “final solution” when referring to Muslims, which has been roundly condemned as a deliberate nod to the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler, who spoke of a ‘final solution to the Jewish problem’.
Senator Anning then called for a nationwide vote on which groups should be allowed to enter Australia.
Unsurprisingly, Senator Anning has been met with strong criticism from both sides of the political divide, with the Prime Minister calling the speech a “shocking insult” to Holocaust victims and survivors.
Despite the criticism, Senator Anning is unapologetic whilst his party leader Bob Katter openly defends the speech, saying that it was “everything that this country should be doing”.
When challenged regarding his use of the phrase ‘final solution’, Senator Anning told the media that he had not seriously considered his use of it.
Senator Anning has insisted that the phrase was not deliberately used and that his words were being taken out of context by “thought police”.
He said that the phrase was “never meant to denigrate the Jewish community” and that if anyone was offended by “two words” then “that is the way it has to be”.
Many other MPs took the floor to condemn Senator Anning’s speech, with many openly shedding tears.
Prime Minister Turnbull notably refuted Senator Annings’ call for a Muslim ban by asserting that the majority of the victims of Islamic terrorism were in fact Muslim themselves.