Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition will also be moving an amendment in my name. The amendment that we propose to move does one very simple thing, which I would have thought, given the speech that Senator McAllister has just given on behalf of the government, would be a very easy amendment to support. Our amendment goes to the simple principle: Australia must defend free speech and peaceful assembly while drawing a hard line against extremism of every kind.

The coalition is concerned that a number of rallies yesterday were hijacked by a minority of Neo-Nazis. Let me be very clear, lest we are verballed. There is no place for Neo-Nazis in Australia. Their hatred and extremism are a disgrace, and they must be condemned without hesitation. We will not, however, support this motion, because it seeks to suggest that all attendees at the rallies over the weekend were racists and white supremacists. That is clearly not the case. Disappointingly, the amendment moved by the government does not draw a hard line against extremism of every kind.

It's also not lost on me—the irony of Senator Faruqi moving this motion is clear for everyone to see. This is very important for Australians to understand. This is the senator who marched in a rally a few weeks ago where individuals proudly held a portrait of the Ayatollah Khamenei carrying a machine gun. Now, Senator Faruqi, just like myself on behalf of the coalition, could have moved a motion condemning the extremists who hijacked the rally that she attended, but she did not. Quite frankly, Senator Faruqi has no credibility lecturing Australians about anti-extremism.