Voters boot far-right Australian lawmaker who blamed Muslims for Christchurch shooting out of office

The far-right Queensland lawmaker who shifted the blame towards Muslims after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people in two New Zealand mosques has been voted out.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Fraser Anning will lose his seat in Parliament after failing to secure enough to votes to win reelection.

Anning first made headlines for a tweet he fired off in the wake of the Christchurch shooting, where he said that immigration was to blame for the massacre.

“The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place,” he wrote.

His comments prompted widespread backlash across social media and from his fellow politicians, including Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison, who said Anning’s views “have no place in Australia, let alone the Australian parliament.”

“I would normally not want to give this any oxygen, but I want to absolutely and completely denounce the statements made by Senator Anning,” Morrison said. “In his conflation of this horrendous terrorist attack with issues of immigration, in his attack on Islamic faith specifically.”

In the wake of his comments, Anning made headlines again when a young protester smashed an egg over his head during a press interview. Anning then attacked the protester by punching him before others in the crowd tackled him.

As Business Insider pointed out in March, Anning’s right-wing ideology is well documented. He was among the 12 senators who voted against same-sex marriage in Australia and has a history of supporting anti-immigration legislation.

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Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.