STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (13:40): Recently, the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General called on One Nation to disavow the Nazi party. Last Friday, Paul Sakkal, the Sydney Morning Herald chief political correspondent, tried to smear One Nation on this. Yet, a week earlier, I had published my Spectator Australia article denouncing the Nazi party.

Last Wednesday, in my senator's statement, I doubled down on my denouncement. In the Spectator and in my senator's statement, I asked why the Labor Party and the political left did not stand against violence in word and deed from all sides of politics, left and right—as One Nation does. The Sydney Morning Herald used that comment yet not the next sentence, which I'll quote: Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, nationalists and ethno-nationalists exist in this country.

We disavow them completely. They stand in opposition to everything One Nation believes. The Sydney Morning Herald ran its story as One Nation refusing to denounce Nazis, when we had denounced them in a speech the article quoted.

Since then, I've been asked why I included nationalists in the list of those I denounced. I'll clarify. The Nazi party in Australia no longer uses that name nor the name National Socialist.

The new name for the same tiny group is nationalists. The dictionary defines nationalism as a political ideology and sentiment that promotes the interests, cultural identity and political independence of a particular nation above all others, yet Australian Nazis are distorting this to redefine nationalism as an ideology pushing a nation's cultural or political superiority and dominance over others.

That's why I prefer the term 'patriotism': a love of one's country and its shared civic values. Everything I and One Nation do is to benefit Australians. We denounce vested interests and globalist agendas clearly.

The Nazis are trying to corrupt the meaning of the word 'nationalist'. I'm pleased to celebrate being a patriot. Be careful: language is powerful.