(Sydney Morning Herald) Australia’s political leaders have united to heap condemnation on a “dangerous” speech by Senator Fraser Anning that a shocked Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned was “only helping the terrorists.”
The call by Senator Anning, from Katter’s Australian Party, for a ban on Muslim immigration and a return to a discriminatory immigration regime akin to the White Australia Policy dominated the political debate and sparked outrage across the spectrum, from the Greens to One Nation.
In a potential turning point in the debate over race-baiting in Australian politics, Mr Turnbull called the speech “racism” and “stupidity,” and stressed that targeting Muslims in that way was dangerous.
“Let’s be quite clear — those who seek to demonise all Muslims on the basis of the crimes of a tiny minority are helping the terrorists,” he said.
