SYDNEY, March 2 (Reuters) – Australia’s Senate on Monday 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. Yousay there’s great Muslims out there, well I’m sorry, how can youtell me there are good Muslims?” Hanson said in an interviewwith Sky News in February. * Penny Wong, leader of Australia’s centre-left Laborgovernment in the Senate, moved the censure motion againstHanson, 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 MuslimAustralians, which do not reflect the opinions of the AustralianSenate or the Australian people”. * It passed with the support of the minor Greens party andtwo senators from the conservative Liberal party who crossed thefloor. * “This censure motion is about drawing a line and sending amessage to the people of faith in this country and sending amessage to children in this country that your leaders believethat condemning an entire religion is not acceptable,” Wongsaid. * Hanson called the motion a “stunt” before storming out ofthe chamber. * A senator for Queensland, Hanson first rose to prominencein the 1990s because of her strident opposition to immigrationfrom Asia and to asylum seekers. * She has worn a burqa to Parliament twice, most recently inNovember, in a push to ban the public wearing of the Muslimgarment. * Recent opinion polling shows Hanson’s One Nation hasovertaken the country’s conservative opposition coalition, with28% of the primary vote amid rising support for anti-immigrationpolicies.
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
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