Put Katter last on the ballot: Labor MP

A Labor frontbencher wants his party to preference Katter's Australian Party last at the next election, a spot normally reserved for Pauline Hanson.

Pauline Hanson and a Labor frontbencher may have reached unlikely agreement on one issue in the lead-up to the next federal election.

Both the One Nation leader and Labor's Ed Husic want the opposition to preference Katter's Australian Party last on voting ballots, after an incendiary "racist" maiden speech by one of the party's senators, Fraser Anning, last week.

"I would prefer to put him last. You've seen how Bob Katter has carried himself this week. I think that should be evidence enough," Mr Husic told the ABC on Saturday.

"We shouldn't be supporting a person who so clearly doesn't communicate the need for community cohesion. He prioritises a very divisive platform for the sake of his own advancement."

For his colleague, Pat Conroy, it was a tough call who should be preferenced last.

"We've got extremists in the Katter Party and extremists in One Nation," Mr Conroy told the ABC.

"I do challenge my Liberal colleagues that they need to go a step further and stop their dog whistling."

Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly described Senator Anning's remarks as "disappointing."

"I find generally around the country it doesn't matter what background you come from, or what is your race or religion," he said.

"If you get on with work and get on with living in society, you are accepted by 99.9 per cent of Australians."

Despite her own call for curbs to Muslim immigration to Australia, Pauline Hanson distanced herself from the rhetoric of Senator Anning.

"Is the Labor party going to put the Katter party last on the how to vote cards?" she told the Senate on Wednesday.

"This will be quite interesting, how they're going to put their how to vote cards."


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Source: AAP


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