There has been widespread condemnation of Queensland Senator Fraser Anning for using the words "final solution" in his maiden Senate speech.
"The final solution to the immigration problem is, of course, a popular vote," the Queensland MP told the chamber.
Taboo phrase tangled in history
The phrase "final solution" is usually associated with Nazi Germany and the mass killing of Jews during World War II.
Around 1942, the Nazi leadership established a plan called "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question", which led to the genocide of some six million Jewish people in occupied Europe as part of the Holocaust.
But the word solution was used in political discussions about Jews in Germany well before the Holocaust.
In the late 18th century the word was used during a bid to secure Jews equal legal rights and in the 19th century the word was used again when Germans were debating the terms of migration and citizenship for minorities. 
"When we are talking about the 19th century there are definitely points of contact with the kind of thinking that the Senator has articulated in his parliamentary speech," University of Sydney history Professor Dirk Moses told SBS News.
Senator Fraser Anning has been roundly slammed for his maiden speech. Source: AAP
"There we are in similar territory to the debate we are experiencing in Australia today."
The professor said people did not necessarily think of genocide when they spoke about solutions in the 19th century.
"They thought about reversing legal equality, so having discriminatory legislation, they spoke about deportation and preventing the migration of Jews into Germany," he said.
In the 1930s and 40s, the Nazis intensified the meaning of the phrase, pushing it in a genocidal direction.
Auschwitz concentration camp, where an estimated 1.1 million people died, including Jews, Roma, homosexuals and dissidents to the Nazis. Source: Moment Open
"So their solution would be a final solution, so no more half measures," Professor Moses said.
Challenging to change meaning
The only way taboo phrases can be made safe is to place them in a context which forces them to be read in an entirely different way, according to Monash University lecturer in linguistics Doctor Simon Musgrave.
"For ones that are taboo you really do need to be very careful," he said.
"If you don't want the taboo meaning and the taboo connotations (you must) provide the context that makes it clear that you are thinking of those words as separate words and not as a phrase."
He says the senator's words were at very least a failure of sensitivity.
Holocaust survivors' pain
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said that regardless of his intentions, Senator Anning's choice of words would have been deeply unsettling for Jewish Australians, in particular Holocaust survivors.
"For them the words "final solution" in reference to an 'alien' group are a chilling reminder of how the process of dehumanisation begins," President Anton Block said in a statement.
"They know from personal experience where it can end.
"Senator Anning should have been aware of this history."
The Council goes on to say that prospective migrants to Australia should be assessed on their individual merits, and not according to their skin colour, ethnicity or religion.
