Fraser Anning: Difference between revisions

Senator Fraser Anning
Anning in 2018
Senator for Queensland
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 November 2017
Preceded by	Malcolm Roberts
Personal details
Born	William Fraser Anning (1949-10-14) 14 October 1949 (age 75) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Independent (until 1997; since 2018)
Other political affiliations	One Nation (1997–2003; 2014–2018) Katter's Australian (2018)
Spouse	Fiona Anning
Residence(s)	Gladstone, Queensland, Australia
Alma mater	University of Queensland, Gatton Campus
Occupation	Hotel owner (Self-employed) Sheep and Cattle farmer (Self-employed)
Profession	Grazier Businessman Politician
Military service
Allegiance	Commonweath of Australia
Branch/service	Australian Army Reserve
Years of service	1969–1973[1]
Unit	49th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment

William Fraser Anning (born 14 October 1949) is an Australian Senator who has been a senator for Queensland since 10 November 2017^[1] currently sitting as an independent. He was elected to the Senate after a special recount was triggered by the removal of One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, who was found ineligible to be chosen as a senator due to his status as a dual citizen.

Anning chose not to join One Nation in the Senate, sitting as an independent until June 2018, when he joined Katter's Australian Party (KAP) as its first senator, before being expelled from KAP in October 2018 for his views on race and immigration.^[2]

Anning holds far-right, and anti-immigration views^[3][4][5] and has faced criticism for some of his remarks on Islam, including his use of the term "final solution" in his maiden speech and statements shortly after the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, which blamed them on "the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate".

Anning and his wife own a number of hotels and live in Gladstone. They have two daughters.^[6]

Anning grew up in north-west Queensland on Wetherby Station, one of the Anning family's pastoral properties near the isolated town of Richmond. He is the great-grandson of Charles Cumming Stone Anning, a British pastoral squatter who came to the Australian colonies in the mid-19th century to acquire landholdings. Charles and several of his adult sons established the Reedy Springs property north of Hughenden in 1862, and soon expanded their claims by forming the nearby properties of Chudleigh Park, Mount Sturgeon, Charlotte Plains and Cargoon.^[7] His family was involved in the frontier conflict as they forcibly took the land from the local Aboriginal people. In response to the spearing of cattle, the Annings would ride out with firearms, attack Aboriginal campsites and capture young boys who survived in order to use them as labour on their cattle and sheep stations.^[8] The Annings at times also requested the services of the local Native Police paramilitary unit to assist in clearing "blacks" off their runs.^[9] Frank Hann, another pastoralist in the region who regularly participated in extrajudicial punitive raids on Aboriginals, described in his diary in 1874 how he saw "Anning just come back from hunting blacks".^[10]

Fraser Anning's grandfather Francis "Frank" Albert Anning spent much of his time at Reedy Springs but also bought into further properties such as Wollogorang, Savannah Station and Compton Downs. One of Frank's sons was W. H. (Harry) Anning who took up the Wetherby property^[11] and whose wife gave birth to Fraser Anning in October 1949.^[12]

Anning is a Catholic, but not a regular churchgoer.^[13]

Anning holds socially conservative views and has been a public opponent of same sex marriage, and was one of twelve senators who voted against the 2017 bill.^[14] In 2017, when Cory Bernardi moved a motion opposing Medicare funding of gender-selective abortion, Anning was one of ten senators who voted for the motion, which was defeated with 36 votes against.^[15][16]

On 22 March 2018, Anning announced that he would support the Turnbull Government's proposed company tax cuts.^[17][18]

Anning introduced a private members' bill calling for less stringent import laws for mace, pepper spray and tasers, to "allow women to defend themselves". It was supported by David Leyonhjelm, Peter Georgiou, Cory Bernardi and Brian Burston, but rejected by both major parties and the Greens.^[19]

On 4 June 2018, Anning joined Katter's Australian Party, becoming the party's first senator;^[20] however, he was expelled in October 2018 for his inflammatory rhetoric concerning immigration, including his mention of a "final solution" to the problem.^[21]

In 2018, Anning described the perpetrators of attacks on South African farms as "subhuman",^[22] also claiming that a state-orchestrated "genocide" was underway in South Africa.^[23]

Anning stated in a Senate speech that he believed Safe Schools was "sexually deviant propaganda" and undermined "the white family". He criticised the curriculum as "gender fluidity garbage".^[24]

On January 5, 2019, Anning attended a far-right rally in Melbourne, led by Blair Cottrell, the neo-Nazi founder of the United Patriots Front.^{[25][26][27][28]}

In January 2019, he began the process to register a new political party, called "Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party" with a registered abbreviation of "The Conservative Nationals".^[29] The proposed name raised concern with the National Party of Australia (which has a registered abbreviation of "The Nationals") as being too close to the name of the existing party.^[30] Several objections under Section 129 of the Electoral Act were received during the formal notification period between 11 January and 24 February^{[needs update]}.^[31]

In 1998, he stood as a One Nation candidate for the lower house division of Fairfax at that year's federal election.^[32]

Anning was third on the One Nation senate ticket in Queensland at the 2016 federal election. He gained just 19 below-the-line first-preference votes under the optional preferential voting system.^[33] Due to its high statewide count, One Nation elected two senators in Queensland at the 2016 election – party leader Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts. In October 2017, during the parliamentary eligibility crisis, the Court of Disputed Returns ruled Roberts was ineligible to be elected to the Senate due to his failure to renounce his British citizenship.^[34] The following month, on 10 November, Anning was declared elected in place of Roberts following a special recount.^[35] Prior to his elevation to the Senate, he was facing bankruptcy legal action due to money owed to the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. This could have made him ineligible to sit in parliament, but the case was withdrawn.^[1]

Upon his swearing in to the Senate on 13 November 2017, Anning was vouched for (a parliamentary custom indicating that the new member is who he claims to be)^[36] by two crossbenchers from other parties: Cory Bernardi (Australian Conservatives) and David Leyonhjelm (Liberal Democrats).^[37] One Nation leader Pauline Hanson subsequently issued a media release saying that Anning had "abandoned" the party to sit as an independent "until something else comes along".^[38] Anning responded that "she [Hanson] made my position pretty much untenable with her conditions."^[39] On 16 November, it was reported that neither Anning nor Hanson had formally made their intentions clear to the Senate chamber regarding his party status, and he therefore remained a One Nation senator in the eyes of the Senate. It was also unclear whether Hanson intended to expel Anning solely from the parliamentary group or the wider organisational party as well.^[40] On 15 January 2018, Anning advised the Senate President that he would henceforth sit as an independent.^[41] On 5 February 2018, he formed a voting bloc with Bernardi and Leyonhjelm.^[42]

On 14 August 2018, Anning delivered his maiden speech to the Senate. In it, he called for a plebiscite to reintroduce racial and religious discrimination in immigration policy, especially with regard to excluding Muslims. He criticised "cultural Marxism", "safe schools and gender fluidity garbage" and the abuse of the external affairs power of the Australian constitution. He also spoke in support of the right of civilians to own firearms, and the Bradfield Scheme irrigation proposal.^[43]

His speech included a reference to a "final solution", the English equivalent of the term used by the Nazi Party during preparation and execution of the Holocaust during World War II.^[44] Anning has stated his comments were taken out of context, saying that he had used the phrase to introduce the last of six policies he proposed about immigration. His comments received condemnation from across parliament, including the Labor Party, the Liberals, the Nationals, the Greens, One Nation and the Centre Alliance, among other crossbenchers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He has refused to apologise for his comments.^[45] Pauline Hanson said she was appalled by Anning's comments and described them as "straight from Goebbels' handbook".^[46] However, Anning's party leader Bob Katter described it as "a magnificent speech, solid gold" and said he "1000 percent supports" Anning.^[47] In October of the same year, Katter expelled Anning.^[48]

Anning was strongly criticised for his comments about the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, which killed at least 50 Muslim parishioners. He claimed that immigration of "Muslim fanatics" led to the attacks, and that "while Muslims may have been victims today, usually they are the perpetrators". Anning also stated that the massacre "highlights...the growing fear within our community...of the increasing Muslim presence."^[49][50] The comments received international attention and were overwhelmingly criticised as being insensitive and racist, and sympathetic to the views of the perpetrator. As of 18 March 2019, a petition calling for his expulsion from the Australian parliament had amassed 1.2 million signatures, although there is no mechanism for such an expulsion under Australian law.^[51][52]

On 16 March, Anning was struck by an egg on the back of the head by a 17-year-old male while speaking to media and his supporters in a disused industrial warehouse in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. Anning subsequently struck the teenager twice in the face, who was then tackled by several of Anning's supporters, one of whom held the youth in a choke hold until police arrived and took the teenager away. The teenager was also kicked and punched several times while being held on the ground, with a supporter of Anning calling him "nothing but a weak human fucking being."^[53][54][55] The boy was taken into custody by police, but was later released without charge. The conduct of Anning and his supporters is being investigated.^[56][53]

Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison later criticised Anning over the incident, and argued "the full force of the law" should be applied to the senator.^[57]

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