A petition calling for Senator Fraser Anning to be removed from Australian Parliament after his insensitive and racist remarks about the Christchurch terrorist attack has received more than one million signatures.
Anning issued a statement just hours after the horrific shootings, blaming New Zealand's immigration programme for the murders.
"The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration programme which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place," read the statement.
"While Muslims may have been the victims today, usually they are the perpetrators."
Anning was quickly condemned on social media, but two Australians took their anger further.
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Kate Ahmad and Harris Sultan both started petitions to remove Anning from Parliament.
They have since merged their separate petitions, and it has become the largest online petition in Australia's history.
The petition received 250,000 signatures in the first 18 hours, and people are still signing every 10 seconds.
However, according to section 8 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act: "A House does not have the power to expel a member from membership of a House."
Therefore, it is up to voters to expel members from Parliament. The House can suspend members, but only for "offences against the House".
This is not the first time Anning has caused outrage. In 2018 he was widely criticised for using the term "final solution" in a speech about immigration.
"The final solution to the immigration problem is a popular vote," said Anning in a speech to parliament.
In response to his comments regarding the Christchurch terrorist attack, Anning was egged by a teenage boy on Sunday. Anning punched the teenager in the face twice.
A GoFundMe for the teenager, dubbed "Eggboy" by the internet, has raised $37,906 with the proceeds going towards "legal fees and more eggs".
The creator of the GoFundMe says they have spoken to EggBoy, whose real name is William Connolly, and he has asked for the majority of the money to go to the families of Christchurch.
Newshub.
