ATSIC blames One Nation for KKK in Australia
By Margaret Allum
On June 2, ATSIC chairperson Gatjil Djerrkura condemned One Nation for contributing to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Australia.
One Nation national director David Ettridge moved to expel Peter Coleman, one of the party's founding members, when it became publicly known that Coleman is also the Australian leader of the KKK, the far-right, race-hate group based in the United States.
Despite One Nation leader Pauline Hanson losing her parliamentary seat in the last federal election, and the subsequent media reports of the decline of her party, the last federal election results show that One Nation is still a force, attracting 10.5% of the rural vote and 5.9% in city areas.
Djerrkura said the electoral success of One Nation has legitimated groups such as the KKK. "One Nation officials can talk until they are blue in the face about expelling people such as the man identified in today's newspapers", he said, "but they know and we know they are responsible for giving them legitimacy."
Democratic Socialist Party member Marina Carman, who helped to organise last year's secondary student walk-outs against racism, agreed but pointed out that One Nation is not the only party responsible for the rise of the far right in Australia. "John Howard's government has contributed to the success of One Nation, and to cultivating the racist atmosphere which strengthens the development of groups such as the KKK.
"While One Nation's politics is full of racist ideas, Howard's government is putting those ideas into practice by implementing laws to extinguish native title, for example, and refusing to compensate members of the stolen generation."