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'Kia kaha' - Australian senator breaks down reading tribute to New Zealanders in wake of Christchurch terrorist attacks

April 3, 2019

Labor's Pat Dodson was supporting a motion to censure Senator Fraser Anning for linking the Christchurch terrorist attack to Muslim immigration.

An Australian Labor senator broke down as he directed a Māori phrase to the people of New Zealand in a speech censuring Senator Fraser Anning for linking the Christchurch terrorist attack to Muslim immigration.

Senator Anning, an Independent senator from Queensland, was rebuked by his parliamentary colleagues in Canberra today for blaming Muslim migrants for the horrific attack last month in which a white supremacist allegedly killed 50 worshippers at two mosques.

Labor's Pat Dodson, in supporting the censure motion, said senators "must be of one voice and one heart on this issue" and turn their backs against xenophobia. 

"I say to those faithful mourning for their families in Christchurch: Allah yer’ham hom - rest in peace," Senator Dodson said.

"I say to the people of New Zealand: ...   kia kaha - We are sorry for your loss, stay strong," he said, breaking down and pausing to regain his composure as he concluded his speech. "I support the motion."

Earlier Senator Dodson told the Senate: "We turn our backs against xenophobia, against hate crimes, against any gunman who holds innocent people in their sights. 

"We call out those who exploit fear and ignorance for political gain, who mock the traditional dress of women of another culture, who seek donations form the manufacturers of weapons of war to override our own laws, who argue that it's alright to be white.

"Their actions and exhalations would plunge this country back into the killing times."

Senator Dodson said senators have got to remember that "this history is well known to first nations peoples".

"And your language does matter. And if this remains unchecked then we will go back into that awful period. 

"We should instead turn our faces to the light of a new future, a peaceful, non-violent, tolerant country of hope respect and unity, a country where no innocent man woman or child is ever again victim of mass murder."

Pat Dodson is a Senator for Western Australia. He is a Yawuru man from Broome and a well-known Indigenous leader in Australia.

He has been chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

He was the winner of the 2008 Sydney Peace Prize and was the 2009 John Curtin Medallist.

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