An Australian senator has called for a "final solution" to non-English speaking immigration and people coming to Australia "from the third world".
Fraser Anning, a member of Katter's Australia Party (KAP), used his maiden speech in the Australian Senate to call for an end to all immigration by Muslims and non-English speaking people, the Guardian reports.
The former One Nation party member called for "a plebiscite to allow the Australian people to decide whether they want wholesale non-English speaking immigrants from the third world, and particularly whether they want any Muslims".
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Mr Anning also appealed for a return of the white Australia policy which ran from 1901 to the late 1960s, restricting Australian immigration to people of European descent. He said Australians might want to "return to the predominantly European immigration policy of the pre-Whitlam consensus."
"The record of Muslims who have already come to this country in terms of rates of crime, welfare dependency and terrorism are the worst of any migrant and vastly exceed another immigrant group," he said.
His comments are in contrast to British political economist and author Philippe Legrain who recently visited New Zealand. He said it's a complete fabrication that refugees are likely to become terrorists, and has urged New Zealand and other countries to take more.
He said there's a common misconception that refugees are likely to be terrorists. When Donald Trump was campaigning for the US presidential election, he said if he won, Syrian refugees would be "going back" to where they came from, insinuating they might become terrorists.
But Mr Legrain says no refugees that have arrived in the US since the 1980s have turned out to be terrorists. There were a few Cubans in the 1970s, he said, but that's it.
Nevertheless, Mr Anning is adamant Australia would be better off without Muslim immigration. He said Australia has "Isis-sympathising Muslims trying to go overseas to try and fight for Isis and while all Muslims are not terrorists, certainly all terrorists these days are Muslims."
On Twitter, the senator has said Australia's current immigration system "needs an overhaul". He says the country is "bringing in people who are incompatible with Western values, and the sheer volume of immigration is reducing Australian's quality of life".
Mr Anning wants Australia to return to its former position where immigrants were not allowed to receive welfare payments for the first five years after their arrival, the Guardian reports. He said: "We should go back to that and ban all immigrants from receiving welfare for the first five years after they arrive."
"The final solution to the immigration problem, of course, is a popular vote," he said.
The senator's comments have been widely condemned on social media. On Facebook, Labor MP Tim Watts said the Australian government "has been filled by extremists who want to destroy Australia's multicultural success story".
He said it is "the conservatives who are out of touch with the successful multicultural nation that Australians enjoy in their everyday lives".
During his visit to New Zealand, Mr Legrain argued refugees aren't a burden to be avoided - they're an opportunity to be welcomed, as they're often young, educated and entrepreneurial individuals with a lot to contribute to society.
The money countries spend on resettling refugees ends up back in the economy, he says. For example, when a refugee is welcomed, they need food, they need shelter, they need teachers, translators, and all of that creates jobs for the local economy.
Newshub.
