A Greens senator has launched a blistering attack on The Australian newspaper accusing it of assassinating the character of a prominent Muslim activist and standing up for privileged middle-aged white blokes espousing bigoted views.
The News Corp publication has revealed Yassmin Abdel-Magied took a taxpayer-funded tour to some of the world's most repressive Islamic regimes last November, promoting her book about being a Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian Muslim woman who wears the hijab.
"It's a straight, simple character assassination by The Australian, as they always do when someone dares raise their head above the parapet and make comments with which they disagree," Senator Nick McKim told parliament on Thursday.
"It is a disgusting, race-baiting rant."
Ms Abdel-Magied had a heated clash with Jacqui Lambie on ABC-TV's Q&A program on Monday after the independent senator argued those countries where sharia informs the law were some of the most violently misogynistic places on earth.
Senator McKim's comments came during debate on a One Nation bill that seeks to change the way the Australian Human Rights Commission handles complaints.
Earlier, he suggested The Australian make a change to its masthead.
"Maybe they could put in smaller font just underneath it: 'We're not racist but dot, dot, dot'."
Senator McKim said it broke his heart that thousands of Australians had died in battle so The Australian could publish its rubbish about section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
"Column after column of middle-aged white blokes screaming about how their rights in Australia are being suppressed and trampled," he said of their "bigoted and xenophobic" views.
Earlier, One Nation senator Brian Burston defended the people's right to label his boss Pauline Hanson "Australia's favourite racist" in the name of free speech.
He insisted his bill had no impact on legitimate complaints to the commission and did not diminish important protections for people who suffered serious discrimination.
"In fact, the bill has the opposite effect," Senator Burston told parliament.
"It extends protections of the law to innocent respondents who currently are at risk of being dragged before the commission to answer spurious allegations and malicious attempts at character assassination."
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