Australian senator Fraser Anning defends ‘neo-Nazi’ rally, attacks ABC
- Anning is no stranger to controversy, having claimed in his maiden speech to the Senate that Australia had an immigration problem in need of a ‘final solution’
The independent senator, who was dumped by both One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party, and faces impossible odds of being re-elected, has spent the past 48 hours defending his decision to attend a St Kilda rally alongside neo-Nazi sympathisers.
Tony Abbott joined the condemnation on Monday, telling 2GB Anning’s behaviour was “poor judgment”.
“We’re all against soft-touch policing, we’re all against kid-glove policing, but that doesn’t mean that we should be supporting extremists of the left or the right,” Abbott said.
The immigration minister, David Coleman, said Anning should “absolutely not have attended” a rally that contained “disgraceful racist behaviour”. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Anning was unfit to be a senator.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for Fraser Anning to hang out with his Nazi mates,” she posted on Twitter on Monday.
Speaking on ABC News Breakfast, Hanson-Young said she was surprised neither Prime Minister Scott Morrison nor the opposition leader Bill Shorten had mentioned Anning’s attendance in their comments on the rally.