The Prime Minister was taken to task this week by Labor MPs, including Ed Husic (pictured). Photo: Ed Husic Facebook.
Federal parliamentarians were preoccupied with immigration issues this week, following protest marches across the nation on Sunday (31 August) that sparked heated debate and unusual antics over the subsequent four days.
Some of his own members questioned Anthony Albanese for saying good people had joined the marches, which were hijacked by neo-Nazis.
The Prime Minister had strongly criticised the violence displayed in some of the rallies, but suggested not everyone taking part had extreme right-wing agendas.
He was taken to task over his choice of words by some Labor MPs during a closed-door caucus meeting.
But backbencher Ed Husic went further when asked to comment publicly about the PM’s statement.
“I haven’t seen a good fascist yet,” Mr Husic said during an interview with the ABC.
Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price congratulated those who attended the rallies and claimed the Federal Government was prioritising accepting migrants from India because they would vote Labor.
She had to subsequently admit those remarks were a “mistake” but refused to apologise, saying she was pushed into making the statement by the media.
As the Greens accused Senator Price of feeding into white nationalism, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley tried desperately to repair the damage by praising Indian and other multicultural communities.
Meanwhile, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young wrote to the Parliamentary Standards Committee urging action be taken against Bob Katter for threatening violence against a reporter while the independent MP was rousing support for the anti-immigration rallies.
“Threats of violence have no place in Australian political discourse, especially coming from a member of parliament,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Mr Katter has doubled down because he hasn’t received any sanction. He seems to think that the normal rules of respectful engagement don’t apply to him. This is not OK.
“Mr Katter should unreservedly apologise to [9News reporter] Josh Bavas or resign from parliament.”
Wednesday evening saw the bizarre spectacle of a handful of Coalition senators crossing the floor to vote in support of One Nation’s motion seeking to set up an inquiry into “the impact of high immigration on the Australian economy”.
Bridget McKenzie, Matt Canavan, Sarah Henderson, Ross Cadell and Alex Antic broke ranks to vote with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Shadow health minister Anne Ruston – who had earlier in the day scored a massive win against Labor in forcing the government to release aged home care packages – called across the chamber to Senator McKenzie (the Nationals in the Senate leader) that she should be voting with the rest of the Coalition.
Senator McKenzie ignored Senator Ruston and voted with Senator Hanson, who had earlier been forced to remove an Australian flag draped over her while on the Senate floor.
The motion was defeated 37 to 9.
A bill giving the Federal Government greater powers to deport members of the so-called NZYQ cohort to Nauru, passed parliament at the end of the sitting week.
The NZYQ cohort consists of stateless refugees who broke Australian laws and, in doing so, surrendered their rights to stay in Australia.
Under the new legislation, the requirement to give such people a fair hearing does not apply in cases where the government has third-country reception arrangements.
The bill was the subject of a hastily convened inquiry on Wednesday evening, during which Department of Home Affairs officials revealed the deal to send up to 354 non-citizens to Nauru will cost Australia $2.5 billion over 30 years.
The Asylum Resource Centre criticised Labor and the Coalition for rushing the bill through parliament, saying it removed the most basic legal safeguard – the right to fairness – from deportation decisions.
The centre’s chief executive, Kon Karapanagiotidis, said passing the legislation sends a devastating message to the migrant community.
“This bill is a racist attack on migrants that drags us back to the darkest days of the White Australia policy,” he said.
“In a week when neo-Nazis are marching in our streets, the Albanese Government and the Coalition have revived a racist agenda we thought had been consigned to history.
“The recent election told us that Australians have rejected this kind of race-baiting and dog whistling, and the decision to revive this kind of politics is an enormous betrayal of our multicultural communities.”
