Australian politician’s speech on ‘final solution’ condemned

An Australian politician has been widely condemned for a speech to parliament in which he advocated reviving a white-only immigration policy and used the term “final solution” in calling for a vote on which migrants to admit into the country.

Fraser Anning has refused to apologise for the content of his first upper house speech, despite politicians across the spectrum uniting to denounce his words.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition Labour leader Bill Shorten gave passionate Parliament speeches on Wednesday opposing Mr Anning’s comments.

Mr Anning also called for a complete ban on Muslim immigration and linked Muslim communities to terrorism and being on welfare programmes.

Mr Turnbull said in his own speech that “those who try to demonise Muslims because of the crimes of a tiny minority are only helping the terrorists”.

A member of the Australian Party, Mr Anning was unapologetic about using the same phrase Nazi leaders used in planning the Holocaust during the Second World War.

“The final solution to the immigration problem is, of course, a popular vote,” Mr Anning said in his Senate speech.

He claimed to be simply referring to the “ultimate solution” to a political problem and said people who were offended took the two words out of context.

Mr Shorten said those two words evoke trauma and come from history’s darkest moments. “Two words would speak for the brutalisation and murder of millions. Two words that evoke fear and grief and trauma and loss,” Mr Shorten said.

He said most Australians do not want to see the country go back to 1958 and moved a unanimous motion praising the dismantling of discriminatory immigration policies over several decades.