Bob Katter has announced that Senator Fraser Anning has been kicked from Katter’s Australia Party over his “clearly racist” comments about non-European immigration, despite the fact Katter still backs his maiden speech – in which he very much said and alluded to those same points – one hundred percent. Hmm!
#BREAKING: Senator @Fraser_Anning has been axed from @RealBobKatter‘s Australian Party.
‘Clearly Fraser wants the freedom to pursue his crusade, and we think it’s best to give him this freedom.’
MORE: https://t.co/OaG8mGx35o #Speers pic.twitter.com/Un2wZ2c9fH
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) October 25, 2018
Rumours bubbled throughout the day that Anning was about to get the boot for his inflammatory comments and moves in the Senate over the past couple of months. Anning’s maiden speech called for a “final solution” to immigration, an understandably horrific comment which received commensurate outrage. Sine then, he’s doubled down on that speech, praising the White Australia Policy and calling for a moratorium on non-European immigration.
This was after he resigned from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation literally instantly after he was sworn in as a replacement for Rod Culleton.
Katter’s move here is… a confusing one to say the least. He has previously defended Anning’s comments on this matter very strenuously. In this very press conference where he announced Anning would be returning to the crossbench, he still defended the Final Solution speech. So who knows what is going on in that cooked brain of his.
On the other hand, KAP president Shane Paulger said last week that Fraser Anning had been warned over his racist stances.
“I have said if this continues there’s no place for Fraser in our party. It appears my words have gone unheard,” said Paulger.
“This is not what we stand for. There’s so many good things migrants have brought to this country, it’s ludicrous to say they have to be European.”
Well, it seems Fraser Anning is back to the crossbench, which really doesn’t make a huge difference to either his voting power or his ability to put fucked things in Hansard. But he no longer has the institutional power of a partt – however small – behind him as he does so.y
