Pauline Hanson has broken down in tears in her first interview since she lost a defamation case brought by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi.
The One Nation leader said Australia is ‘not the country’ she ‘grew up in’ after a judge found she had racially vilified Ms Faruqi when she told her to ‘p*** off back to Pakistan‘ in a tweet.
The Federal court ruled on Friday that the tweet was racist, that Senator Hanson must removed it and that she must pay Senator Faruqi’s legal fees after she launched the defamation action on September 9, 2022.
The judge declined to make orders proposed by Senator Faruqi that Senator Hanson pay $150,000 to a charity or undertake anti-racism training.
Senator Hanson appeared deeply affected by Judge Angus Stewart ruling that her post in reply was unlawful under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
‘I just feel that the country’s changed so much, in such a way that people can’t say what they think anymore. The thought police are out there,’ she told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
‘It’s not the country that I grew up in. People may criticise my comment (but) I’ve never changed since I first entered politics nearly 30 years ago.
‘The decision made, I think, was unfair, unjust and a bit hard but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to appeal against it, I’m going to fight this.’
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has broken down in tears during an interview after a judge ruled her post telling a rival Senator to ‘p*** off back to Pakistan’ was racist
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said the tweet provoked a ‘torrent of racist abuse’ and she launched defamation in the Federal Court
In a scathing judgment, Justice Angus Stewart found Senator Hanson engaged in ‘seriously offensive’ and intimidating behaviour with the tweet.
The day of Queen Elizabeth’s death, Senator Faruqi took to Twitter, now known as X, to offer condolences to those who knew the monarch.
But she added she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a ‘racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples’.
In a response, Senator Hanson said she was appalled and disgusted by the comments.
‘When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country,’ she wrote.
‘It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.’
Justice Stewart said this post was othering and exclusionary.
‘It is a message that Senator Faruqi is, as an immigrant, a second-class citizen, and that she should be grateful for what she has and keep quiet,’ he said in his Federal Court ruling.
The phrase ‘go back to where you came from’ was a racist, anti-immigrant and nativist trope traceable to the White Australia Policy, the judge noted.
Migrants and other Muslims would have been offended, insulted, humiliated and intimidated by the tweet, he said.
‘It is a strong form of racism,’ Justice Stewart said.
He found Senator Hanson had a decades-long tendency to make negative, derogatory, discriminating or hateful statements against people of colour, migrants and Muslims.
Senator Hanson claimed the decision gave her the opinion Australia is ‘not the same country’ that she ‘grew up in’ and that it was an attack on free speech
Senator Faruqi outside court after her win. Senator Hanson was ordered to remove the tweet and pay legal costs
Justice Stewart rejected the One Nation leader’s claim she did not know her Greens rival was a Muslim at the time of the tweet.
Similarly he dismissed arguments the post was a fair comment in a political discussion about alleged hypocrisy from the Greens deputy in criticising the monarchy while benefiting from life in Australia.
Her submissions that sections of the Racial Discrimination Act went against the implied constitutional right of political communication were also shot down.
Justice Stewart said the law prevented some topics being discussed by politicians, but this limitation was only slight and served to protect the public from hatred and discrimination that could itself silence the vulnerable.
He was also highly critical of the One Nation leader as a witness, calling her generally unreliable, argumentative and unwilling to accept obvious truths.
‘I was left with the distinct impression that Senator Hanson would say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time; she had little regard to whether what she said was true or false,’ he said.
In a statement, the Greens deputy leader said the decision was a win for everyone who had been told to go back to where they came from.
‘And believe me, far too many of us have been subjected to this ultimate racist slur far too many times in this country,’ she said.
She said the judgment set a precedent for how racism would be viewed in Australia, saying it was about time the One Nation leader faced consequences for her comments.
