Government blames 'administrative error' for its support for 'it's OK to be white' vote

Coalition senators have now voted against a motion declaring “it’s OK to be white” less than a day after their support for it sparked a humiliating backdown.

The Morrison government blamed an “administrative error” for its decision to vote in favour of the motion from Pauline Hanson, which echoed a notorious alt-right slogan.

The motion, which also asked senators to acknowledge the “deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on western civilisation”, was originally only narrowly voted down 31 to 28.

The slogan “It is OK to be white” has a history of affiliation with white supremacist groups overseas, including the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis.

The motion received 23 votes from the ruling Liberal-National Coalition on Monday, including the deputy Senate leader and trade minister, Simon Birmingham, the small business minister, Michaelia Cash, the resources minister, Matt Canavan, communications minister Mitch Fifield, Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion and deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie. Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi – born in Kenya and the first person of black African descent elected to the Australian parliament – also voted for the motion.

It was only voted down because Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators Derryn Hinch, Tim Storer, Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick opposed it.

The very close vote on the motion received a bewildered and angry response from the public on Monday evening and made international headlines.

In the face of the backlash, the government backed away from its support for the motion on Tuesday morning, saying it was regrettable and the result of an error.

The video recording of the vote on Monday showed the motion, which had been on the notice paper since September, was explicitly denounced as racist before being put to a vote.

Hinch labelled the motion “obscene”, and the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, noted that the slogan “has got a long history in the white supremacist movement”.

Liberal senator Anne Ruston then rose to make a short statement, telling the Senate “the government condemns all forms of racism”.

The motion was then put to a vote and a division was called.

As they moved into position, senators from the Labor and Greens side could be heard yelling “Really? Really?” at Coalition senators on the opposite side of the chamber.

After the vote, a number of Liberal senators appeared to defend the motion on Twitter, declaring they were in fact taking a stand against racism.

But on Tuesday morning, the government was backing down.

“I found it regrettable,” the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said.

Mathias Cormann, the leader of government in the Senate, called a press conference to say the government had made a mistake.

“There was a vote in the Senate yesterday in relation to a motion put forward by senator Hanson which the government should have opposed,” Cormann said.

“When the motion was first put forward in September, and we considered our position on the motion, we made a decision to oppose that motion and to make a statement in our words that as a government we deplore racism of any kind, but not to actually support the motion.

“As the leader of the government in the Senate I take responsibility for the error and I’m sorry that that happened. It is indeed regrettable.

“As I indicated when this motion first came up, we made a very clear decision to oppose that motion. It wasn’t voted on in September, it came back up yesterday and it slipped through. It shouldn’t have and I take responsibility for that.”

Gichuhi’s tweet from Monday, that she had declared no to white supremacy, no to black supremacy, but yes to “human supremacy”, was deleted on Tuesday.

Christian Porter, the attorney general, issued a statement on Tuesday saying the directive to vote for Hanson’s motion had been sent from his office “without my knowledge”.

“It appears that, of the very large number of motions on which my office’s views are routinely sought, this one was not escalated to me because it was interpreted in my office as a motion opposing racism,” Porter’s statement said.

“The associations of the language were not picked up. Had it been raised directly with me those issues would have been identified.”

Labor’s Mark Dreyfus said in a statement that Porter needed to take responsibility for himself, saying that as the attorney general, he “is in charge of the Racial Discrimination Act and interpreting other complex legislation. Does he seriously expect Australians to believe that he couldn’t interpret what Senator Hanson’s motion meant?

“This is not something the government can just shrug off. This is government senators being seen to endorse a battle cry of the white supremacy movement inside the Australian parliament. It is appalling.

“This is not just a deeply embarrassing moment for the Coalition, but also for the country.”

The government accepted Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong’s challenge to recommit the vote on Tuesday, with senators present voting unanimously against the motion.

The government’s leader in the upper house Mathias Cormann said he took personal responsibility for Monday’s error, apologising to the Senate.

“This is severely embarrassing,” he told parliament.

Senator Hanson, who declared herself not to be a white supremacist, and fellow conservative crossbenchers, didn’t attend the recommitted vote.

“We need to ensure that our white civilisation, our western civilisation, must be protected and looked after,” she told reporters.

with agencies