Politics

“This Filth Is In Our Parliament”: Indigenous Academic Marcia Langton Slams Racism On ‘Q&A’

by Tom Clift  28 May 2019
Marcia Langton slams racism on Q&A

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Indigenous academic Marcia Langton has slammed the resurgence of white nationalism in Australia in an impassioned appearance on Monday night’s Q&A. 

The episode featured a number of questions about racism and freedom of speech, and came to head with a discussion about antisemitism. Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus said it was up to the country’s leaders to “speak out against racism in all its form”, while University of Western Sydney lecturer Rachael Jacobs highlighted racism in Parliament including Pauline Hanson’s infamous “it’s okay to be white” motion which received the support of government senators last year.

“It’s okay to be white, which translates to it’s okay to be racist,” Jacobs said. “It’s not some fringe groups that exist in the shadows. This is right in front of our face.”

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Langton, a professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, picked up on this point, condemning the neo-Nazi rally that took place in Melbourne earlier this year that was attended by then-Senator Fraser Anning.

“I don’t understand why Australia didn’t, just as Europe did many years ago, make it a criminal offence to deny the Holocaust,” Langton said. “When I saw those lunatic fascists in Melbourne on St Kilda beach giving the Heil Hitler salute, I was just enraged that there is no law to stop that.

“When our Senators voted for Pauline Hanson’s idiotic resolution, ‘it’s okay to be white’, which is a Ku Klux Klan slogan, I felt sick,” she continued. “And I started to lose hope. I thought how can apparently intelligent people vote for that resolution? I was so disgusted. Just look at the list of people who voted for that resolution. It’s shocking. It’s absolutely deeply shocking. And to this day I’m going to find it very, very difficult to be civil to the people who voted for that resolution in the Senate.”

“This movement has brought disgrace to our Parliament. This filth is in our Parliament, and there’s barely an objection. I would like to see the government take these issues much more seriously.”

Watch it below.