Aug 17: No. No! NO!!
A maiden speech by Senator Fraser Anning this week brought out the worst in the extreme right wing of Australian politics. He called for a reintroduction of the white Australia policy and referred to a "final solution" to immigration issues. Sen Katter, also supported this rotten, festering call for a return to a discredited policy which was rightly disposed of decades ago.
Senator Anning had over six months to draft and craft his maiden speech to the Senate. His use of the term "The Final Solution" was calculated to stir up emotions and bring out the worst in the fringe dwellers at the far right of Australia's political spectrum. That remark was a grotesque offence to the Jewish people who were brutally subjected to Adolph Hitler's so called Final Solution.
The House of Representatives and the Senate both swiftly and overwhelmingly condemned Sen. Anning's divisive call to discriminate against people who are not "White European Christians". Kudos to them for that but make no mistake - Anning's intolerant speech was calculated to ramp up the call for discrimination and is only a short step from the fascism of pre-war Germany and the white supremacy goals of the Ku Klux Klan of USA. Anning recognised that the support for discrimination is there on the edges and his purpose was to fan the flames.
His indefensible call for discrimination against people on the basis of skin/race/colour/religion is not the Australian way but it surely is a distant echo of the Hitler's fascist German way which Australian forces fought against in 1939-1945, with heavy casualties. In the ensuing years Australia's immigration policies came under intense self-review and eventually the discriminatory white Australia policy was jettisoned (in the 1960s).
We don't hear very much from the Australian Nazi party any more. There is no need. People like Anning, Katter, Hansen and others are doing their dirty work under different banners.
I am glad Senators Anning and Katter do not represent my home state of NSW. Their sickening calls to return Australia to the dark days of discrimination will not prevail in the Parliament - but they do signal trouble ahead as intolerance and discrimination are projected into the spotlight.
These calls for a "Final Solution" and Australia to become "White European" are code for a mix of white supremacy, fascism, nazism and Christian theocracy. There is no place for such a philosophy here.
I wonder what the indigenous Australians think about all this? It must take them back to 1788.
