A petition demanding the removal of disgraced Senator Fraser Anning from parliament has surpassed one million signatures.
At the time of writing, Remove Fraser Anning from parliament had attracted 1,000,200 signatures.
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His comments following the Christchurch mosque terror attacks – his latest to encourage hate and division – was this time, too atrocious to simply ignore. After his statement was published, Anning was skewered online by the general public and egged by 17-year-old Will Connolly at a press conference in Melbourne on Saturday.
The country’s major parties have drafted a censure motion – to be passed when the Upper House resumes in April – against the Queensland senator for his “inflammatory and divisive comments seeking to attribute blame to victims of a horrific crime and to vilify people on the basis of religion, which do not reflect the opinions of the Australian Senate or the Australian people.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he thinks Anning should face the “full force of the law” after he punched Connolly twice, after being egged.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney doctor Kate Ahmad and Melbourne author Harris Sultan initially made two separate change.org petitions calling for Anning’s removal from office but, after learning of each other’s petition, they merged.
Dr Ahmad recognises that “realistically … is likely to be constitutionally impossible to expel Anning” through the petition.
We can however send out a strong message that vile hate speech will not be condoned, and that Muslims, or indeed any group of people, will not have their dignity and rights eroded.
In less than a day, the petition gathered 230,000 signatures.
By Sunday night, at around 10:20pm, Remove Fraser Anning from parliament had cracked one million signatures.
“Wow! One million signatures and it’s still heading up,” Dr Ahmad wrote.
One million people opposed to the hateful rhetoric of Senator Anning.
One million people saying that it’s not ok to persecute a group of people based on their religion.
One million people standing in solidarity with the devastated Christchurch Muslim community.
One million people who care to preserve the peaceful, multicultural society we live in.
Earlier this afternoon, executive director of change.org Sally Rugg said,“This is the largest change.org petition in Aus history.”
This is the largest https://t.co/qL3wxV1J17 petition in Aus history. I think it could crack a million today…
“We can send a strong message that hate speech will not be condoned, and that Muslims, or any group of people, will not have their dignity and rights eroded.” pic.twitter.com/9lcF2krIk8
— Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) March 16, 2019
Prior to the petition’s one million signatures, co-creator Sultan tweeted: “The power of the people is speaking!”
As we get closer to 1 million signatures, the Australian political parties, senators and parliamentarians are uniting together against the awful behaviour of Senator Fraser Anning.
The power of people is speaking!https://t.co/DVFSR10oxP
— Harris Sultan (@TheHarrisSultan) March 17, 2019
