Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja has accused Peter Dutton of “fuelling Islamophobia” after warning that a government with more Muslim candidates would be a “disaster”.
The opposition leader made the comment on Thursday morning when answering questions at a news conference in Queanbeyan, south-east New South Wales.
Mr Dutton suggested that if a raft of new candidates from other factions were to form part of a minority Labor government, it would be disastrous for Australians.
“I think what it shows is that if the Prime Minister is in a minority government in the next parliamentary term, it will include the Greens, the Teals, Muslim candidates from western Sydney. It will be a disaster,” he said.
‘If you think the Albanese government is bad now, wait until it is a minority government with the Greens, the Teals and the Muslim independents.
“That’s not the formula for bringing down food prices and getting our economy back on track,” he said.
“Under such a government, inflation will continue to rise and interest rates will go up.”
Khawaja criticised Dutton’s comments and accused the politician of “fuelling Islamophobia from the top”.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has suggested that if a raft of new candidates from other factions were to form part of a minority Labor government it would be a “disaster”.
Australian cricket star Usman Khawaja accused Dutton of ‘fuelling Islamophobia’
The cricket star slammed Dutton’s comments as “bigotry at its finest” in a post on X (pictured)
“As a Muslim who grew up in Western Sydney, I find this comment from someone running for Prime Minister an absolute disgrace,” he wrote on X on Thursday.
‘Intolerance at its finest. Fueling Islamophobia from the highest levels’
Lawyer Bede Kelleher agreed that Dutton’s comments amounted to “despicable bigotry”.
“I don’t expect much from any of our politicians, but this is terrible,” he said.
Left-wing writer and activist Jeff Sparrow called the statement “blatant racism.”
“Imagine the response if he had warned against ‘Jewish candidates from North Sydney’. It would have been the end of his career and rightly so,” he wrote.
Mr Dutton told The Today Show on Friday morning that he had no problem with a party that has a religious view.
“My problem is not with someone of Islamic faith, on the contrary, it is not with someone of Jewish faith,” he said.
“But when you say that your task is, as a first priority, to support a Palestinian cause or a cause outside Australia, that is a very different scenario.”
Dutton’s comments came during a chaotic day for the Labor Party, when first-term Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman announced she was leaving the party.
“If you think the Albanese government is bad now, wait until it’s a minority government with the Greens, the Teals and the Muslim independents,” Dutton said on Thursday (the opposition leader is pictured with his wife Kirilly at the 2024 Midwinter Ball).
During her emotional exit speech, Ms Payman said her colleagues had “exiled” her after she crossed the floor and sided with the Greens on a motion on recognising the state of Palestine.
“It is with a heavy heart but a clear conscience that I have announced my resignation from the Australian Labor Party,” he said.
“I will now sit as an independent to represent the people of Western Australia.”
Ms Payman took aim at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, saying his claim yesterday that she had been planning to become independent for a month was false.
He also insisted he would not take the helm of a new “Teal Muslim” movement, as has been widely rumoured.
Dutton’s comments came during a chaotic day for the Labor Party, with first-term Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman (pictured) announcing she would leave the party on Thursday.
Initially, Ms Payman received nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but her decision to appear in an unauthorised ABC interview where she proudly said she would walk across the room again if she had the time, prompted the Prime Minister to intervene again.
She has been suspended indefinitely from the party and senior Labour ministers have promised she will be welcomed back into the fold when she starts acting like a team player.
Labor will now have to negotiate with Ms Payman as part of the independent group when passing legislation in the Senate, if it does not have the support of the Coalition.
To achieve a Senate majority without the Coalition, Labor will need the support of all 11 Greens, plus three members of the eight-member independent group.