Minister for Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill has accused the Coalition of turning a blind eye to rising Islamophobia after what he called a failure to condemn One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s attack on Muslims last week.
The remarks come after The Australian reported that Hill would use a speech to the McKell Institute today to urge Australian progressives to embrace the flag and prevent it from being leveraged as propaganda by hard-right extremists.
“Our country is being ripped apart by extremism and division,” he told Sky News this morning.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill.Simon Schluter
“I start the speech by reflecting on the many societies throughout history and right now in every continent in the world where good societies have fallen apart because political leaders choose to foment violence. They choose to stoke ethnic divisions, religious divisions and so on.
“And you’ve got parts of your party, the conservative right, part of which where you sit, that are not calling out this disgusting attack on Muslim Australians by [Pauline] Hanson. Hanson lives rent-free inside your head,” Hill said.
Hill will also tell the gathering of the institute in Sydney today that “debates over the scale and focus of the migration program are entirely legitimate”, but that weaponising diversity and migration will not quell “genuine community anxieties”.