HERALD SUN
TOM MINEAR
After Senator Paterson made a joke about the Russian Revolution, Senator Carr hit back saying: “You’d know that, those in the Hitler Youth would understand that only too well.”
The Liberal senator said that was “seriously offensive” and “outrageous” and demanded the comment be withdrawn.
But an angry Senator Carr said Senator Paterson was “a poor petal” and that he was “being facetious”.
“You just threw a bucket of s— at me, and you’re going to suddenly say you’re offended, for God’s sakes,” the Labor senator said.
Senator Carr then withdrew the comment, later saying he apologised for the remarks and “we’ll move on from there”.
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said his comments were “grossly offensive”.
“It has become far too frequent and common to use the Holocaust for sloganeering and I do hope that there will come a time when public figures will realise that using inappropriate and painful analogies to Hitler in order to score a political point and generate headlines are misguided and insensitive,” he said.
It follows an angry clash in Senate estimates yesterday when government minister Michaelia Cash bizarrely threatened to air rumours about young women who worked for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.