Yahoo News Holocaust denialism and far right on rise in Australia, says Frydenberg
Josh Frydenberg has used a speech at the Australian War Memorial to warn the far right is on the rise in Australia and around the world, and to argue horrors are perpetrated when societies lapse into indifference.
Following a speech earlier in the week where Australia’s top intelligence chief warned the threat of rightwing extremism in Australia was real and growing, the treasurer used remarks on Wednesday at the opening of an exhibition about the Holocaust to warn denial was on the rise.
“As the years go by memories fade, there are people who are seeking to diminish the loss of life during the Holocaust, there are countries that are challenging its very existence, there is the rise of the far right in countries around the world, including in some parts of Australia,” Frydenberg said.
“This is why we are all here, this is why we all must be here.”
The treasurer said at the end of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower predicted there would come a time, as he was inspecting a concentration camp, that people would deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
“So we’re here today, to honour the dead and their memories, but we’re also here to thank the war memorial for continuing to remind us of this evil dark period in world history, that we all have the collective duty to ensure never again.”
Frydenberg said he had represented the government five years ago at the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“It was a moment that I will never forget, in the cold, in the snow, in the dark, more than 50 world leaders gathered, including the German president and we walked past the watchtowers, along the rail lines to light a candle in memory of the millions who lost their lives.”
“In the tragedy that was the Holocaust, 6 million Jews, but also homosexuals and the disabled, Jehovah Witnesses and gypsies – millions lost their lives at the hands of the brutal Nazi killing machine, and most tragic, one and a half million Jewish children perished.”
Frydenberg said he struggled to comprehend “how a people of Mozart, Bach and Weber could descend to such inhumanity to their fellow man”.
He said the atrocities happened in large part because people were passive, or indifferent. The treasurer quoted the Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller “who said first they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist”.
“Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Related: Dutton says 'leftwing lunatics' must be dealt with as Asio warns of far-right threat
On Monday night, the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) Mike Burgess said that rightwing extremism, brought into “sharp terrible focus” by last year’s Christchurch massacre, was manifesting in “small cells” of adherents gathering to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons and disseminate “hateful ideology”.
The intelligence chief warned the threat of rightwing extremism was real and growing, and he said that the number of overall terrorism leads under investigation had doubled over the past year.
But the home affairs minister Peter Dutton generated a furore by telling reporters the morning after the Burgess speech that it was important for security agencies to deal with threats from both rightwing and leftwing “lunatics”.
After copping a blast from Labor for applying false equivalence given the Asio chief had not flagged leftwing extremism in his speech, Dutton then declared that “leftwing terrorism” included Islamist extremism.
The Labor MP Ed Husic on Tuesday called for an urgent review of the threat posed by rightwing extremism. “Nowhere beyond the mouth of the home affairs minister have people been talking about so-called leftwing extremism,” Husic told Sky News.
“The fact that the home affairs minister sought to inject that level of politicisation into this demonstrates more of a reflection of his thinking.”
“I would be calling on the government to refer to the joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security an urgent review into what is happening in respect to rightwing extremism in Australia.”
The Labor leader Anthony Albanese has also written to Scott Morrison proposing an inter-faith service to mark the first anniversary on 15 March of the Christchurch shootings.
“Australia and New Zealand have long enjoyed a close relationship – one of kinship and shared history,” Albanese told the prime minister. “The fact that an Australian citizen is facing trial for launching those violent attacks on Christchurch mosques that killed 51 people and injured some 49 others is a sorrowful aspect of that shared history.”
