16/10/2018
GOVERNMENT VOTING IN FAVOUR OF ONE NATION SENATE MOTION A DISGRACE
We strongly condemn the motion put to the Senate by Senator Pauline Hanson and the decision by 23 government Senators to vote with One Nation to support it.
It is not OK to affirm white supremacist slogans in the Australian Senate.
It is not OK for 23 members of the Morrison government to endorse white supremacism in the Australian Parliament.
This motion should have been defeated easily. Instead, 23 members of the Coalition government voted for it.
Not only did 23 government Senators vote in favour of the motion – senior members of the government have backed it in since yesterday afternoon. The Attorney-General tweeted yesterday that his colleagues’ votes showed that they “deplored racism of any kind” – but by this morning, the best he and Government Senate Leader Matthias Cormann could do to explain the vote was to blame it on an “administrative error”.
Voting for a motion that uses a white supremacist mantra is not an administrative error; it’s a shocking display of just how incompetent this government is, and how out of touch they are with the rest of Australia.
A simple internet search on the phrase would have shown its origins and deep association with white supremacist ideologies. The government has only apologised for its administrative error because they were “embarrassed”.
This Government isn’t interested in representing the majority of Australians. They are only interested in pandering to an increasingly outspoken far-right fringe in the Australian Parliament because they are desperate to stay in power.
We will always stand up and speak out for all Australians who do not have a voice.
This Government is dangerously out of touch, and unlike them, Labor will continue to represent the interests of multicultural Australia and stand up to their divisive tactics.
MEDIA CONTACT:
ROSIE SITORUS (ALY) 0427 677 335
TIM ROBERTS (GEORGANAS) 0411 111 188
Kat Theodosis (KHALIL) 0432 243 569
PENNI PAPPAS (VAMVAKINOU) 0416 481 626