Politics

Here’s Senator Fraser Anning Hanging Out With A Bunch Of Far Right Extremists

This man is in Parliament, ffs.

by Tom Clift  5 January 2019
Fraser Anning and Blair Cottrell at St Kilda right wing rally

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Independent Senator Fraser Anning, a man so famously awful that he’s been disowned by both One Nation and Bob Katter, was in Melbourne today to attend a gathering of far right extremists and hang out with convicted racists. And yep, that pretty much checks out.

Dozens of right wing extremists congregated at Melbourne’s St Kilda beach on Saturday afternoon to “discuss the problems of African gang violence”. The rally was organised by Neil Erikson and promoted by Blair Cottrell, both of whom have been convicted of inciting contempt of Muslims after staging a mock beheading to protest the construction of a Bendigo mosque. Cottrell is also the leader of the United Patriots Front, and was suspended from Twitter after tweeting about raping a female journalist.

Erikson thanked Anning for attending the event, while the Senator also shared a video on his Facebook page in which he and Cottrell could be seen shaking hands with the crowd.

“I’m here representing a lot of people from Queensland who wish they could be here,” he said. “This rally is [on] an Australian beach, Australian people are showing their disgust with the Australian government for allowing garbage like these Sudanese thugs coming into our country belting bloody innocent women and children and attacking us in our own country.”

“All Australians eventually need to get over their political correctness and stand up and fight back,” he added.

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Anning was heavily criticised for his maiden speech to parliament back in August, when he said Australia need a “final solution” to its immigration problem.

The rally in St Kilda attracted around 200 anti-racism counter protesters who could be heard chanting slogans like “migrants are welcome, racists are not” and “Nazi scum off our beach”.

There was also a heavy police presence, including mounted police and members of the riot and dog squads. At least one man was arrested after he was found carrying a “dangerous article”.