Pauline Hanson has hit back at a male critic who told her to “toughen up”, as she surpasses $500,000 in donations for a legal appeal over her “go back to Pakistan” comment.
Earlier this month, the One Nation leader lost a defamation case brought by Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.
A judge found he had racially vilified Ms Faruqi when he told her to “f*** off back to Pakistan” in a tweet.
In a video posted to
“No, I can take it,” he fumed. “When I feel like I’m continually getting kicked and kicked and treated totally differently than someone else because of my politics and what I believe, that’s where it bothers me.”
Hanson occasionally appeared close to tears in the video and claimed that he had received great support after losing the case.
‘You, the people, supported me. The donations you have made, even from retirees and people who can least afford it, you have given what you can.’
He has vowed to appeal the Federal Court’s decision and is currently trying to raise $1 million to cover his legal costs.
Senator Hanson said she had received great support after losing the case.
Its donation page showed it was already more than halfway toward that goal on Wednesday, having raised $560,000.
In the November sentencing, Judge Angus Stewart found Senator Hanson engaged in “seriously offensive” and intimidating behavior with the tweet.
On the day of Queen Elizabeth’s death, Senator Faruqi had come to X to offer his condolences to those who knew the monarch.
But he added that he could not mourn the death of the leader of a “racist empire built on the stolen lives, lands and wealth of colonized peoples.”
In response, Senator Hanson said she was shocked and disgusted by the comments.
‘When you emigrated to Australia, you took advantage of all the advantages of this country. “It is clear that you are not happy, so pack your bags and go to Pakistan,” he said.
Hanson spent 11 weeks in prison in 2003 after being jailed and acquitted of voter fraud (her mugshot is pictured).
Judge Stewart found the tweet was unlawful under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
The phrase “go back to where you came from” was a racist, anti-immigrant and nativist trope dating back to the White Australia Policy, the judge noted.
He was also highly critical of the One Nation leader as a witness, calling her unreliable, argumentative and unwilling to accept obvious truths.
