Updated
Video: Senators Pauline Hanson and Derryn Hinch get into a heated debate over immigration
(ABC News)
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson will abstain from a
vote to censure Senator Fraser Anning over his offensive comments
following the New Zealand shooting.
The Government and Opposition will unite to bring the bipartisan motion when Parliament returns in April.Key points:
- The Government and Labor will join forces to censure Fraser Anning for linking the Christchurch attacks to immigration
- Pauline Hanson says she will abstain from the vote condemning the former One Nation senator
- Peter Dutton compares Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi's comments to Senator Anning
But Senator Hanson has ruled out supporting that.
"A censure is... not going to prove anything," she told Sunrise.
In response to Friday's mass shooting, in which 50 people were killed, Senator Anning said while he opposed any form of violence the attacks were linked to growing fears of Muslims in the community.
Those comments prompted a 17-year-old boy to smash an egg on Senator Anning's head.
Footage shows Senator Anning immediately swinging two punches at the teenager. Police have said they are investigating the incident.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called Senator Anning's comments "appalling and ugly" and said his Government would move a bipartisan motion of censure against Senator Anning when Parliament resumes.
The Greens want to go one step further, by amending the Privileges Act so that Senator Anning could be expelled from Parliament.
The Houses of Parliament cannot expel a politician for their behaviour, but they can be disqualified if they are convicted of offences punishable by imprisonment for a year or longer.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has condemned a Greens senator for saying his border policies and political rhetoric have "been playing games with our lives", calling her rhetoric as damaging as Senator Anning's.
'What they've been doing does come with a cost'
In response to New Zealand's mass shooting, Senator Mehreen Faruqi said it was not just far-right politicians who had been "fanning the flames of racism and Islamophobia"."It is politicians from government positions ... who have been for years whipping up anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-asylum seeker sentiments," Senator Faruqi said.
"It is politicians like Peter Dutton who have actually contributed to creating an atmosphere where hate is allowed to incubate in our society."
Senator Faruqi, Australia's first Muslim senator, was referring to the Federal Government's border protection policy, Operation Sovereign Borders, and crackdown on boat arrivals.
"They can't shrug off their responsibility. What they've been doing does come with a cost. It does come with consequences, but really they've been playing games with our lives," Senator Faruqi said.
Mr Dutton denied the accusations and slammed the comments, saying Senator Faruqi could be critical of the policy but that her rhetoric should be condemned.
"I'm hardly going to take morals lectures from the extreme left who frankly are just as bad in this circumstances as people like Fraser Anning," Mr Dutton said.
"They should equally be condemned."
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