Prejudice and hate unleashed against migrants by a senator in Australia's parliament cannot be ignored, Labor leader Bill Shorten has told parliament.
Katter's Australian Party MP Fraser Anning has refused to apologise after using the term "final solution" in his widely criticised maiden speech on Tuesday night.
The remarks drew widespread condemnation from impassioned and at times tearful politicians across the spectrum in the lower house on Wednesday.
A motion by the opposition leader passed unanimously, recognising that since 1973 successive Labor and Liberal-National governments had pursued a racially non-discriminatory immigration policy to the "overwhelming national and international benefit".
"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," Mr Shorten told parliament.
The motion wording mirrored that of a Bob Hawke resolution in 1988.
Mr Shorten said he had no doubt Senator Anning's intention was in line with the political art form of right-wing extremists who turned corrosive and fragmented public debate into an attention-seeking opportunity.
"I understand that in some sense there might be a reason to simply ignore it, to starve the stupidity of oxygen, to treat is as beneath contempt," he said.
"But as leaders, as representatives of the Australian people, as servants of diverse communities in our great multicultural nation, we cannot stay silent in the face of racism."
In his speech, Senator Anning called for a plebiscite on which migrants came to Australia was the "final solution" - a phrase used in Nazi Germany to describe the plan to kill millions of Jews during World War II.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned Senator Anning's remarks as a shocking insult to the memory of more than six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.
Nationals leader Michael McCormack said Australia was better than the senator's remarks.
"The things which unite us are greater than those which divide us," he said.
Labor MP Ann Aly tearfully told parliament she was tired of having to stand up against hate and vilification.
"Today, this morning, I see hope, I see possibilities, I see opportunity, I see leaders on both sides who are willing to stand up and I see that I don't have to fight alone any more," she said.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also got teary while calling out Senator Anning's comments as inconceivable.
"The horror that people went through during (the Holocaust) is part of the reason that we stand up for the values that we do today (so) that we will never see that horror revisited," he said.
Many, including deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, rejected Senator Anning's explanation the use of the words "final solution" were not intended in that context.
Independent MP and former intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie said it was unconscionable, extremist behaviour that will "get people killed".
Australian Associated Press
