Finance minister Mathias Cormann and attorney-general Christian Porter have blamed an "administrative error" by staff for Liberal and National senators voting in favour of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's motion that "it is OK to be white".
Cormann, the leader of the government in the Senate, says the coalition should have opposed Hanson's motion condemning anti-white racism but "it slipped through".
The Senate narrowly voted down Hanson's motion 31 to 28 on Monday afternoon. The motion noted the "deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation" and that "it is OK to be white".
The slogan "it is OK to be white" is used by the white supremacist and alt-right movements.
23 Liberal and National senators voted in favour of Hanson's motion, including communications minister Mitch Fifield, trade minister Simon Birmingham, Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion, small business minister Michaelia Cash, deputy leader of the Nationals and minister for sport Bridget McKenzie, resources minister Matt Canavan, assistant minister for home affairs Linda Reynolds, assistant minister for treasury Zed Seselja, assistant minister for agriculture Richard Colbeck, and the assistant minister for international development Anne Ruston.
South Australian Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi, who was born in Kenya and is the first black person of African descent to sit in Australian parliament, also voted in favour.
BuzzFeed News understands that during the vote Labor senators questioned government senators about whether they should be voting against the motion. Sources say Liberal and National senators checked their voting advice sheet and confirmed it told them to vote in favour.
Cormann and Gichuhi went into damage control on Monday night, tweeting that by voting in favour of the motion they were taking a stand against racism.
The Government indeed deplores racism of any kind. https://t.co/ABqqMj08XE
By Tuesday morning, the government had changed its tune and Gichuhi had deleted her tweet.
Prime minister Scott Morrison told a press conference it was "regrettable" that the government supported the motion but left the explanation up to Porter and Cormann.
Porter said the decision to support the motion came from an email sent out by his office without his knowledge. He called it an "administrative error".
"It appears that, of the very large number of motions on which my office’s views are routinely sought, this one was not escalated to me because it was interpreted in my office as a motion opposing racism," Porter said in a statement.
"The associations of the language were not picked up. Had it been raised directly with me those issues would have been identified."
Porter says he is now reviewing the processes in his office to prevent any future administrative errors.
Cormann was not in the chamber for the vote, but said as leader of the government in the Senate he takes full responsibility.
“We made a decision to oppose that motion [in September] and to make a statement in our own words that as a government we deplore racism of any kind, but not to actually support the motion," Cormann told a press conference on Tuesday morning.
"Yesterday, as a result of an administrative process failure, the government senators in the Chamber ended up on advice voting in support of the motion.
"I take responsibility for that error and I’m sorry that happened. It is indeed regrettable."
I asked Mathias Cormann if it’s ok to be white. He says the government doesn’t support the words in Hanson’s motion and they should have opposed it. https://t.co/y4kn8xP2De
When BuzzFeed News asked whether he thought it was "OK to be white," Cormann said: "Look, I don’t support the form of words that’s in that motion and the government made a decision not to support that motion. We deplore racism of any kind. There is no question in my mind that the decision that we made in September to oppose this motion is the decision that should have been implemented yesterday. As a result of an administrative process failure that didn’t happen and I regret that".
After the government's backflip, Hanson tweeted that the prime minister was suffering from a "bad case of it's okay to be white guilt".
Looks like Scott Morrison is suffering from a bad case of it's okay to be white guilt. -PH https://t.co/TSxTWmFYnh