The activist group GetUp! and the Australian Greens are demanding Liberal senator Ian Macdonald withdraw comments linking them to the youth league of Nazi Germany.
Senator Macdonald, during a furious debate in Parliament's upper house today, referred to GetUp! as the Hitler youth wing of the Greens political movement.
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He stood by his remark when challenged by Greens deputy leader Christine Milne, and Senate deputy president Stephen Parry refused to rule the comment out of order.
Senator Milne said later the Coalition's dirty politics had hit a new low.
"This is an extraordinary abuse of the memories of the countless millions slaughtered by the Nazis and an abhorrent offence to Holocaust survivors and their families," she said.
The Greens will refer both Liberal senators to the upper house privileges committee.
"I have written to the president of the Senate this morning asking him to examine Senator Parry's refusal to rule the slur out of order and pull Senator Macdonald into line with common decency," Senator Milne said.
The Greens also want Liberal leader Tony Abbott to insist his senator withdraw the remark.
GetUp! accused Senator Macdonald of cowardly hiding behind the veil of parliamentary privilege.
Likening the lobby group to Hitler's youth wing was a comparison that carried with it "a weight of hatred and ignorance", the group's national director Simon Sheikh said.
"Parliamentarians and indeed all Australians should condemn the statement as both offensive and a wasteful distraction to the Senate's important work," he said.
GetUp! is making a formal complaint to the Senate privileges committee and has called on the senator to apologise.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/getu...-youth-slur-20111103-1mx7s.html#ixzz1ccHRvPjs
