“Self-segregation has become a reality” in Australia, says Senator Malcolm Roberts, with people “fleeing areas of heavy migrant settlement, especially Islamic settlement”.

“This is not only white flight, it is every kind of flight. Every type of Australian is fleeing these new ghettos” claimed the One Nation populist, citing research on diversity and societal cohesion which suggests the country’s identity and social fabric are beginning to fray.

“Culture and integration matter to Australians,” he told colleagues in the Australian parliament’s upper house, condemning the “coldness and arrogance of [the] political elites” who refused to recognise this.

“In our fraying society, self-segregation has become a reality. We the people are seeking to protect our children, our daughters, our property, our liberty,” he stated bluntly.

Sex attacks on women and girls have become increasingly common in Europe since the advent of the migrant crisis. The German authorities and media came under heavy criticism for apparently attempting to cover up an outbreak of mass sex attacks on New Year’s Eve 2015/16, while assaults in neighbouring Austria rose by 133 per cent in 2016.

More recently, Sweden was shocked when a gang rape was live streamed on Facebook, and Italian populist Matteo Salavini called for the introduction of chemical castration for sex offenders after a Nigerian migrant was accused of attempting to rape a 62-year-old woman working at an asylum centre.

“If immigrants are to assimilate we should be choosing those from cultures with a track record of ready assimilation,” argued Senator Roberts, pointing out that Australians had few complaints about “Buddhists, or Sikhs, or Hindus, or Jews or Catholics or Protestants and so on”.

“How can we expect people wedded to an ideology masquerading as a religion that specifically precludes assimilation, to assimilate and integrate?” he asked. “We can’t.”

Speaking in the same debate, crossbencher Jacqui Lambie praised U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to temporarily restrict travel from seven Muslim-majority states identified as “countries of concern” by the Obama administration as “on the right track”.

Lambie further suggested that would-be visitors to Australia who do not “share our democratic beliefs and respect [our] liberties” should be denied entry. Advocates of Shariah law, the strict religious legal code practised by Islamic State and in Saudi Arabia, were highlighted as a source of particular concern.

“Shariah law is an anti-democratic cancer that doesn’t belong in a free society,” she said. “How could someone who thinks it is okay for women to be treated like possessions of men and like second- or third-class citizens share Australian democratic beliefs?” she asked.

“Sharia law … is anti-democratic. Show me a successful democracy in the Middle East that imposes the death penalty on gay people for being gay, imposes the death penalty on women who are unfaithful to their husband and denies the right of the Jewish people to live in peace in Israel.

“If [people] support Shariah law and want it in Australia, don’t let them in,” advised Lambie. “They are obviously supporters of the terrorists, their law and their culture.”