SYDNEY — Australia's Senate on Monday (March 1) censured far-right lawmaker Pauline Hanson over "inflammatory and divisive" comments she made about Muslim people during a discussion about the possible return of Australian relatives of Islamic State militants from Syria.
"They hate Westerners, and that's what it's all about. You say there are great Muslims out there, well I'm sorry, how can you tell me there are good Muslims?" Hanson said in an interview with Sky News in February. Penny Wong, leader of Australia's centre-left Labour government in the Senate, moved the censure motion against Hanson, who leads the anti-immigration One Nation party.
The motion called on the Senate to censure Hanson for her "inflammatory and divisive comments seeking to vilify Muslim Australians, which do not reflect the opinions of the Australian Senate or the Australian people".
It passed with the support of the minor Greens party and two senators from the conservative Liberal party who crossed the floor.
"This censure motion is about drawing a line and sending a message to the people of faith in this country and sending a message to children in this country that your leaders believe that condemning an entire religion is not acceptable," Wong said.
Hanson called the motion a "stunt" before storming out of the chamber. A senator for Queensland, Hanson first rose to prominence in the 1990s because of her strident opposition to immigration from Asia and to asylum seekers. She has worn a burqa to Parliament twice, most recently in November, in a push to ban the public wearing of the Muslim garment.
Recent opinion polling shows Hanson's One Nation has overtaken the country's conservative opposition coalition, with 28 per cent of the primary vote amid rising support for anti-immigration policies.
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