Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused One Nation leader Pauline Hanson of “undermining social cohesion” after the government formally responded to a report by the special envoy to combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik. The response, announced on Saturday, addresses 54 recommendations made by Malik in his report handed down 10 months ago.
Government accepts 35 of 54 recommendations
The Albanese government said it had accepted and begun to act on 35 of Malik’s recommendations. However, the prime minister rejected calls to give religious groups stronger legal protection and to review counter-terror laws for discriminatory effects against Muslims. The government’s response warned that Islamophobia threatens Australia’s national unity and the Muslim community, referencing the 2019 Christchurch shooting in which an Australian man killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand.
“It has found new life in those who seek to blame all Muslims for acts of terrorism that are an offence against their faith,” the response reads. “The inescapable lesson of the atrocity at Christchurch, the mass murder of Muslims by an Australian gunman, is that what begins with hateful ideas can end in unimaginable violence.”
Malik warns of violent consequences from Hanson’s words
Malik echoed the warning when asked in Sydney on Saturday about Hanson’s claims in an April podcast that Islam was “based on terrorism”. “These damaging, dehumanising words, not only do they isolate and marginalise Muslims, it lends itself to threatening behaviour, harm, … and ultimately, we’ve seen Christchurch,” Malik said.
Albanese did not comment specifically on Hanson’s remarks but said the One Nation leader “has been undermining social cohesion for 30 years”. “Prejudice is something that isn’t normal, isn’t intrinsic to human endeavour, but something that is taught, and political leaders have a responsibility to promote social cohesion in this country,” he said.
Hanson laments end of White Australia policy
Albanese also responded to Hanson’s remarks lamenting the end of the White Australia policy of discriminatory immigration, made in a podcast with far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson. “The movement away from the White Australia Policy wasn’t just the Labor government of Gough Whitlam,” Albanese said. “It was actually a bipartisan position. That began in the 1960s, and that was a good thing.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke condemned the remarks on Saturday. “I never thought when I entered parliament that in my political lifetime anyone who’d been elected to parliament would be calling for White Australia.” “I thought we were in a country where everybody just accepted that we had moved on and we were better because we’d moved on. Part of saying you love Australia is to love Australia for who we are, not some perverted concept of a country where we would turn on each other.”
Hanson did not call for the reintroduction of the White Australia policy on the podcast and denied supporting it in a social media video posted on Saturday. “Never ever have I advocated that, and I don’t believe in it as well,” Hanson said.
Government response includes new police team, taskforce
Albanese said Islamophobic incidents had risen and he hoped the government’s response would support social cohesion. He said some recommendations would be adopted while others would be subject to “further consideration”. After Burke on Monday rejected Malik’s push to reduce the role of religion in Australia’s definition of terrorism, Albanese said his government had taken national security agencies’ advice on terror laws. “It’s independent advice,” he said. “What we don’t do is we don’t contract out government. Decisions are made by our cabinet.”
The federal government’s response includes a new federal police social cohesion team to improve reporting and responses to Islamophobia, and new funding for community organisations. Training for MPs, the public service and police, and a new taskforce to help education agencies tackle Islamophobia will also be introduced. The government did not endorse Malik’s call for a government inquiry into anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, mentioning Palestinians just once.
Community groups welcome response
The Alliance of Australian Muslims and the Australian National Imams Council welcomed the government’s response as an “unprecedented and important step in the right direction” in a joint statement. “While this response is welcome, much more remains to be done,” they said. The peak community organisations applauded Malik’s efforts and said they would work with him to progress the recommendations the government had not responded to.
In announcing the government’s response, Albanese also took aim at One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, who faced a week of headlines over his endorsement of claims promoted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. “This is a guy who’s been elected and re-elected and endorsed and re-endorsed multiple times by Pauline Hanson and One Nation, and his views are not worthy of being a senator, but he’s elected,” Albanese said. “This is the risk that people take when they vote for people who are on the fringes of politics.” A spokesperson for Hanson and Roberts declined to comment.
