Australian MPs have responded to Senator Fraser Anning’s use of the Nazi phrase “final solution” in his speech to the parliament which demanded an end to Muslim immigration.
* "It was just two words. The thought police have jumped on it and they have taken it completely out of context. I'm not going to apologise or regret anything I say."
- QUEENSLAND SENATOR FRASER ANNING, WHO DELIVERED THE SPEECH
* "I was appalled by his comments and his remarks."
- ONE NATION LEADER PAULINE HANSON, WHO HAS ALSO CALLED FOR BAN ON MUSLIM IMMIGRATION
* "Senator Anning's remarks are appalling. I condemn them and I reject them in their entirety. " We reject and condemn racism in any form."
- PRIME MINISTER MALCOLM TURNBULL
* "These comments by a member of the Australian parliament were ignorant and insensitive, they were hurtful and they were divisive."
* "I call on Fraser Anning not only to apologise but also to go and visit a Holocaust museum."
- CABINET MINISTER JOSH FRYDENBERG
* "The simple truth is this - we are a stronger, better country because of all of those who've come across the seas and joined their story to ours."
- OPPOSITION LEADER BILL SHORTEN
* "It is inconceivable that reference to the 'final solution' could be derived with any other meaning ... it should be condemned."
* "It brings a tear to any person's eye as you watch that movie (Schindler's List). The horror that people went through during that period is part of the reason that we stand up for the values that we do today."
- HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER PETER DUTTON
* "I don't think it's acceptable that someone in the Australian Senate could claim to be so ignorant of the Second World War and the terminology associated with the Shoah that he could use that language and pretend it was an accident."
- DEPUTY LEABOR LEADER TANYA PLIBERSEK
* "Combined we are united to condemn those words that were expressed last night, unfortunately, wrongly, in the Senate. I don't even want to mention his name."
- DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MICHAEL MCCORMACK
* "I'm tired of having to stand up against vilification, time and time and time again."
- LABOR MP ANNE ALY
* "Think of what might be happening in some of the schoolyards in Australia today. Those of us who have been on the receiving end of racism know what it feels like. And know what leaders say matters."
- LABOR SENATOR PENNY WONG
* "It is an over-reaction to a term which has multiple meanings. Nobody owns the term 'final solution'."
* "If you are a little snowflake, you can go rushing around, taking offence at all kinds of things."
- LIBERAL DEMOCRATS SENATOR DAVID LEYONHJELM
* "We have a responsibility as political leaders to call it out and fight against what is effectively a fascist view of the world."
- LABOR MP PETER KHALIL
* "There was hardly a group of Australians he did not offend unless you were very close to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan."
- INDEPENDENT SENATOR DERRYN HINCH
* "Australia was forced to confront the fact that there are individuals who will seek to exploit questions of race, ethnicity and religion for base political motives."
- GREENS LEADER RICHARD DI NATALE
* "This is a myopic red-neck reaching out from another time to another people. Modern Australia has moved on."
- LABOR MP GRAHAM PERRETT
* "Fraser Anning's comments on immigration do not reflect the views of the government nor the views of fair-minded Australians. We will always maintain a non-discriminatory immigration program."
- MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS MINISTER ALAN TUDGE
Australian Associated Press
