Pauline Hanson broke down in tears in her first interview since losing a defamation case brought by Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.
The One Nation leader said Australia was “not the country” she “grew up” in after a judge found she had racially vilified Ms Faruqi when she told her to “go back to Pakistan” in a tweet.
The federal court ruled on Friday that the tweet was racist, that Senator Hanson must remove it and that she must pay Senator Faruqi’s legal fees after she brought the defamation action. on September 9, 2022.
The judge declined to make Senator Faruqi’s proposed orders that Senator Hanson pay $150,000 to a charity or undertake anti-racism training.
Senator Hanson appeared deeply affected by Judge Angus Stewart’s ruling that her position was unlawful under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
‘I just feel that the country has changed so much, in such a way that people can no longer say what they think. “The thought police are out there,” he said. News from heaven host Andrew Bolt.
‘It’s not the country I grew up in. People may criticize my comment (but) I have never changed since I first entered politics almost 30 years ago.
‘The decision I made, I think, was unfair, unjust and a bit harsh but I’m not going to give up. “I’m going to appeal and I’m going to fight against this.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson broke down in tears during an interview after a judge ruled that her post telling a rival senator to “fuck back to Pakistan” was racist.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said the tweet sparked a “torrent of racist abuse” and launched the smear in the Federal Court.
In a scathing ruling, 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 took to Twitter, now known as 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,” he wrote.
“It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and go to Pakistan.”
Judge Stewart said this publication was different 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 remain silent,” she said in her Federal Court ruling.
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.
Immigrants and other Muslims would have been offended, insulted, humiliated and intimidated by the tweet, he said.
“It is a strong form of racism,” Judge Stewart said.
It found that Senator Hanson had a decades-long tendency to make negative, derogatory, discriminatory or hateful statements against people of color, immigrants and Muslims.
Senator Hanson claimed the decision gave her the view that Australia was “not the same country” she “grew up” in and was an attack on freedom of expression.
Senator Faruqi outside the court after her victory. Senator Hanson was ordered to remove the tweet and pay legal costs.
Judge Stewart rejected the One Nation leader’s claim that she did not know her Greens rival was Muslim at the time of the tweet.
Similarly, he dismissed arguments that the post was a fair comment in a political discussion about the Greens MP’s alleged hypocrisy in criticizing the monarchy while benefiting from life in Australia.
His claims that sections of the Racial Discrimination Act went against the implicit constitutional right to political communication were also rejected.
Judge Stewart said the law prevented politicians from discussing some issues, but this limitation was only slight and served to protect the public from hatred and discrimination that could silence the vulnerable.
He was also highly critical of the One Nation leader as a witness, calling her unreliable, argumentative and unwilling to accept obvious truths.
‘I was left with the distinct impression that Senator Hanson would say anything she could think of if she thought it would suit her at the time; “I had little regard for whether what I said was true or false,” he said.
In a statement, the Greens deputy leader said the decision was a victory for everyone who had been told to return to where they came from.
“And believe me, many of us have been subjected to this latest racist slur too many times in this country,” he said.
He said the ruling set a precedent for what racism would look like in Australia and said it was about time the One Nation leader faced consequences for her comments.
