The Final Solution – in the Australian parliament
Crossbench Senator Fraser Anning has created an uproar in the Senate calling on “the final solution” on immigration of Muslims into Australia invoking the wrath of his one-time leader One Nation’s Paula Hanson who called his speech “straight from Goebbels’ handbook from Nazi Germany.”
Senator Fraser Anning
In his maiden speech Senator Fraser Anning invoked “the final solution” in an inflammatory speech in which he called fr a plebiscite in the banning of Muslims and non-English-speaking immigrants.
In response to Senator Fraser Anning’s statement in parliament that “the final solution to the immigration problem of course is a popular vote”, Anton Block, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) commented: “Regardless of his intentions, Senator Anning’s choice of words would have been deeply unsettling for Jewish Australians, especially Holocaust survivors. For them the words “final solution” in reference to an ‘alien’ group are a chilling reminder of how the process of dehumanisation begins. They know from personal experience where it can end. Senator Anning should have been aware of this history. It has long been the ECAJ’s position that prospective migrants to Australia should be assessed on their individual merits, and not according to their skin colour, ethnicity or religion.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia’s leading civil rights organisation further commented: “What a poor and inappropriate choice of words by Senator Anning to make a point about immigration.
I will remind him that the Nazis’ “Final Solution” was the deliberate, systematic and mechanised extermination of European Jewry. Invoking terminology from the darkest and most unique tragedy in human history cheapens and taints this important debate. Mr Anning is entitled to his views, but he discredits himself and his argument by irresponsibly referencing an evil plan that led to the calculated murder of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust. This is historical trivialisation of the worst kind imaginable.
As we remember those who lost their lives as a result of Hitler’s Final Solution, let’s hope that Senator Anning refrains from indulging in the future in such misplaced rhetoric.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told media: “We are a nation that does not define its nationality, its identity, by reference to race or religion or cultural background or ethnic background,” he said.
“People from every corner of the earth, from every religion – or of none – and every race can connect, be inspired by, be part of [our] values. That is Australia.”
Later in the House of Representatives, the Prime Minister stated the “final solution” on immigration was a “shocking insult” to the Jewish people. In Nazi Germany, the extermination of Jewish people throughout Europe was known as “the final solution to the Jewish question”.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten tweeted: “The disgraceful and divisive comments by Senator Anning yesterday were a low point for our parliament.”
