Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This motion is a disgrace, particularly coming off the back of Senator Anning's comments earlier this week, which were disgusting and divisive and brought this entire parliament into disrepute. I want to make a couple of points. Firstly, it was good to see this parliament come together to condemn Senator Anning, but what Senator Anning said does not happen in isolation. This government has been sleep-walking Australia down this path for a long time now, demonising African people in Melbourne and joining with the Labor Party in a discriminatory migration policy which locks up only people with brown and black skins in places like Manus Island and Nauru. We have to see Senator Anning's comments in that context. I say very clearly that, if the Labor and Liberal parties had not been joining in discriminatory migration, those comments could not have been made.

Question negatived.