Source : the age
Pauline Hanson has called Wong’s motion to censure her a stunt before leaving the chamber with her One Nation senators in tow.
“This is a stunt, and the people out there are fed up with this,” Hanson told the chamber, accusing the media of misreporting her comments. Hanson also called the government “gutless” for failing to tackle religious extremism.
Hanson smacked herself on the hand, turning to independent senator Lidia Thorpe and saying: “Are you happy? This is a joke.”
Hanson left the chamber with all the One Nation senators as debate continued.
Here is what Hanson told Sky News last month:
“Their religion concerns me because what it says in the Koran … they hate Westerners,” Hanson said. “You say, oh, well, there’s good Muslims out there. Well, I’m sorry, how can you tell me there are good Muslims?”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has spoken about the increased levels of Islamophobia in Australia when referring to the arrest of a 20-year-old West Australian man for an alleged terrorism offence.
Burke said the man was charged with firearm offences and attempts to plan a terrorist act, and cited a manifesto found when law enforcement apprehended the individual.
“[Law enforcement] discovered a manifesto document outlining plans for nationalist and racist ideological motivated act of violent extremism, aimed at attacking mosques in Western Australia as well as Western Australia police headquarters and the state parliament,” Burke said.
“For some time now our security intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been warning that we are entering a new security environment,” he said.
Burke said the Australian Muslim community was experiencing increased levels of Islamophobia and that “every elected official who claims to care about national security has a responsibility to turn the temperature down”.
“Every act of bigotry flies in the face of who we are as Australian … every Australian Muslim, just like every other Australian has a right to be safe and to feel safe”.
Senator Lidia Thorpe has accused Labor of weaponising Pauline Hanson’s anti-Muslim comments to wedge the Coalition.
“The potential motion by Labor today is not about taking a real stand against racism. It is nothing but a cynical wedge and a cheap political stunt designed to undermine the Coalition’s chances in the Farrer byelection,” Thorpe told the Senate.
“If Labor were genuinely concerned about racism, they wouldn’t have been completely ignoring the national anti-racism framework they received 15 months ago … They still cannot tell us when it will be implemented.”
The Coalition will not support the censure motion against One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, the opposition’s leader in the Senate Michaelia Cash has said.
Cash condemned Hanson’s comments, saying the opposition would support the majority of the motion, including rejecting any attempt to vilify people on the basis of their religion. However, she said a censure motion should be used sparingly.
“A formal censure is one of the most serious reviews available to this chamber, and it should be treated as such,” she said.
“Every Australian, regardless of their race, of their religion or of their background, belongs in this country, and it is not something that any senator in this chamber should ever put into question,” Cash said.
“It’s disappointing the motion is going to be moved without amendment, as we would have moved an amendment to condemn the comments and to reject them, but we will not support [the censure] paragraph G.”
Over in the Senate, Penny Wong is pushing to censure Senator Pauline Hanson for her comments suggesting there were no “good Muslims”.
“Nearly a million Australians practice Islam. They are doctors, nurses, trainers, teachers, small business owners, firefighters, police officers and veterans. They are imams, community leaders and role models,” Wong said.
“They are the first to condemn the radical extremists who commit terrorist acts in the name of religion, and to claim that none of them are good is to say there are no good Australians amongst them,” she said.
Wong said freedom of speech was a cherished part of Australian democracy, but with that came responsibility.
“Especially for people elected in this case. Words of parliamentarians echo into classrooms, workplaces, communities. They help shape how others see each other and how they see themselves. A nation divided against itself is a nation diminished,” she said.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has asked a question of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen over the impact the conflict in Iran will have on domestic fuel supplies.
Joyce asked what actions the minister had taken to secure Australian fuel supplies and asked how much diesel was currently on shore in Australia.
“The answer to the question is 34 days in relation to diesel, 32 days in relation to jet fuel, and 36 days in relation to petrol. He only asked me about diesel, but I think he would be interested in the other figures. I am pleased that these stocks are the highest they have been for any time in 15 years,” Bowen said.
The minister later clarified that the supplies were both on Australian soil and on the way to Australia within the nation’s “economic zone”.
Today both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are celebrating their birthdays, which has repeatedly been referenced in points of order by MPs and the Speaker.
Albanese turns 63 today, and Chalmers turns 48. Today is also 30 years to the day since Albanese was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.
On the other side of the benches, both Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and returned frontbencher Andrew Hastie also share the same birthday, on September 30.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has asked Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke if he was aware of any intelligence advice “that at least one of the ISIS sympathisers posed a security threat to Australians” last year.
Burke rose to ridicule Littleproud, saying the opposition was not ready to handle sensitive information if the Coalition was expecting the government to make it public.
“For the first thing, nobody ever should talk about intelligence advice that you received from the agencies in the privacy of the House of Representatives. If you wanted an example of a group of people who are not ready for national security, it is when they start asking in question time about advice from intelligence agencies,” Burke said.
Burke went on to say that anyone ASIO advises as being a security threat would be temporarily excluded from returning to Australia.
“The government would prefer for none of them to return, but if any of them meet the legal threshold for a temporary exclusion order and our agencies give that advice then the order will be put in place, as has happened,” Burke said.
The question was followed by one from Andrew Hastie, which asked in the context of the ongoing conflict in Iran: “has the government halted its plan to bring home ISIS sympathisers and will the government prioritise bringing home law-abiding Australian citizens at risk from the conflict?”
Albanese responded: “The premise of the question is wrong”.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has used a question from the Labor backbench to sledge new Liberal leader Angus Taylor, describing him as “the worst shadow treasurer in memory”.
Asked about how the government was managing the budget, Chalmers eventually arrived at Taylor – the former shadow treasurer – saying: “If the new opposition leader had his way, Australians would not be getting a tax cut this year or next year and deficits would be bigger in both years as well.
“He was the shadow treasurer responsible for their policy of higher taxes for every taxpayer, bigger deficits and more debt. Not content with being the worst minister in the Morrison government, he was the worst shadow treasurer in memory, so they made him the leader of the Liberal Party.”
He went on to say: “We are for lower taxes and smaller deficits. They are for higher income taxes and bigger deficits. That is why their election review says it cost them their economic credentials.
“The member for Hume is the economic and political genius who is responsible for the mess that they are in now. By electing him their leader, they have shown they haven’t learned a thing, and they haven’t changed a bit.”
The major shakeup of Sussan Ley’s deposition is on full display as the new opposition frontbench (and backbench) have taken their seats following Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s reshuffle.
Most notably, leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie has returned to the frontbench from the very back row. He now sits beside Nationals leader David Littleproud and just slightly behind Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson is also now much closer to the despatch box, with his place on the end of the row taken by newer MPs Tony Pasin and Aaron Violi – the latter of whom was just expelled for disruptive behaviour.
On the back row sits centre-right leader and close Ley ally Alex Hawke, alongside former shadow minister and unsuccessful candidate for the position of deputy leader, Melissa Price.
