The former member of One Nation, a right-wing populist party in Australia, Anning talked to supporters of South African white farmers outside Queensland’s parliament in Brisbane on Sunday.

“This is the start of genocide as far as I’m concerned, and it’s only going to get worse because the genocide has just started,” he said. “Anyone who would boil a child in a bath, rape his mother and slaughter people the way they are slaughtering them now are subhuman.”

The senator also cast doubt on the ability of black South Africans to work the land. “These people, when they do take over the farms, as we’ve seen in Rhodesia [Zimbabwe], the farms will run into ruin,” he said. “Within a few more years, they’ll be asking, demanding our support and you can be sure that the United Nations will be demanding that we support these people with foreign aid.”

Anning has backed Australian politician Peter Dutton’s proposal to grant the farmers refugee status. Criticizing migrants from other areas, Anning said South Africans were “industrious, they’re hardworking, they have the same Christian values, as opposed to some of the other people we’ve been bringing into the country”, who he claimed were “intent on tearing our country apart.”

Earlier this month, Australian Home Affairs Minister Dutton called for emergency visas for South Africa’s white farmers, saying “it’s a horrific circumstance they face” and that they “deserve special attention.”

The alleged persecution of white farmers in South Africa has been highlighted by recent media reports. They began covering the events after South African authorities approved new legislation allowing the redistribution of lands owned by white farmers to black South African citizens.

South Africa’s 50 million population is predominantly black, but white citizens reportedly own 72 percent of farmland. The country’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, pledged last month to return the lands owned by white farmers since the 1600s to the black citizens of the country without compensation for the owners.

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