Race on agenda as new Australia parliament meets

By Recep Sakur

MELBOURNE, Australia

Australia's parliament has met for the first time since a drawn out election campaign saw Malcolm Turnbull squeeze back in, with the embattled prime minister immediately facing challenges over migration and race.

Almost two months after Turnbull emerged triumphant after vote counting continued into an eighth day, an Australian Newspoll of 1,696 voters Tuesday showed faith in the prime minister had dropped six percentage points, putting the Liberal Party leader at his lowest since he ousted predecessor Tony Abbott from office.

Following the swearing in of parliamentarians, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Labor leader Bill Shorten put Turnbull on the spot over the country's immigration policy, racial tolerance and reconciliation with indigenous Australians.

In a letter, Shorten sought Turnbull's support for a motion that would see parliament restate its commitment that all Australians enjoy equal rights and deserve equal respect, "regardless of race, color, creed or origin".

The move came as divisive right-wing politician and One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson returned to parliament, after being dumped by voters after a single three-year term in 1998.

In early July, the 62-year-old -- who rose to prominence on an anti-immigration, anti-establishment, anti-free trade ticket -- spoke of fears that "Asians are buying up prime agricultural land, housing," and was reported to have then turned her attention to Muslim migration.

“You can’t deny the fact that in these mosques they have been known to preach hate towards us — is that a society we want to live in?” Hanson told reporters. “Do you want to see terrorism on our streets here? Do you want to see our Australians murdered?”

Fairfax Media has reported that Hanson's party wants Muslim immigration to cease, construction of new mosques to be banned (along with the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public places), a royal commission inquiry to be conducted into Islam, and surveillance cameras installed in all mosques and Muslim schools.

The leader of the Australian Greens, Richard Di Natale has called the party's agenda "racist and bigoted".