https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/debating-immigration-cant-be-dismissed-as-hate-speech/On the Left, there has also been a concerted attempt led by the Greens and GetUp! to shift the blame by asserting — with no real evidence — that the terrorist attack was inspired by the so-called “hate speech” spoken on immigration-related subjects by Coalition politicians.
The argument is that root cause of the terrorist attack is the “hatred” that has allegedly been “normalised” by the “inflammatory language on race” of Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, and Tony Abbott — despite none of these politicians being mentioned in the terrorist’s online manifesto.
All reasonable people oppose speech that genuinely incites racial hatred, and support laws that make incitement, to racially-motivated and all other forms of violence, illegal.
But it is a monstrous absurdity to blame the cesspit of internet white supremacist fanaticism on the legitimate statements that mainstream politicians have made about immigration — and claim they have “blood on their hands”.
Such politicking not only needlessly divides us and undermines the spirit of national unity in the face of terrorism, it also trivialises the real motivations of those who believe killing innocent people is politically justified, and offers no sound guide to how the authorities should respond to such evil thoughts, words, and deeds. The attempt being made to silence debate about immigration by linking it to Christchurch is also likely to prove counter-productive.
Making immigration a taboo subject beyond the bounds of respectable public discussion would not just feed far right paranoia about political conspiracies to deny people a say, it would also create a political void the Senator Annings and their ilk will gleefully fill.
