Senator Pauline Hanson has hit back at criticism of the March for rallies, revealing police urged her not to attend – but she went anyway, claiming Asian migrants hugged and kissed her during the event.
Druing an interview with Sky News the One Nation leader said even her own staff warned her she ‘better not go’ for her own safety because the rally had been taken over by ‘ratbags’ including neo-Nazis.
‘Anyway, I thought, no, I’m going. Then even the police rang me and said, “Look, we don’t really want you going”. And I said, I’m not there to cause any trouble.
‘I said, if any trouble’s going to be had, go and arrest the other protesters. Let ns get out there, wave the n flag, and show pride.’
Hanson accused authorities of double standards, pointing to pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
‘Why should we be shut down and told we shouldn’t attend these things, yet you allow the Palestinian marches every weekend for the last two years?
‘They’re destructive, they’re vicious, flying Hamas flags and terrorist flags, and pushing that agenda.’
Albanese government Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly said the protests were clearly targeted at migrants from ‘countries that have brown people’, not white Western countries.
‘It’s very clear from the conduct, that was observed at these marches, that these marches were a con by the far right neo-Nazis to prey on some legitimate concerns around housing and around cost of living in order to propagate their anti-immigration, racist agenda,’ she told ABC radio on Monday.
‘One of the very clear calls to action that was listed there was anti-Indian immigration, against people coming from India,’ she added.
‘Now that, to me, is clearly racist when you target a specific ethnicity, that is clearly racism.’
But Hanson claimed he rallies were not about race.
‘It’s got nothing to do with the culture or the migrants who have come here.
‘It’s about the numbers coming into and the impact. We’re fed up with mass migration and the effects it’s having on ordinary ns, on housing, health, infrastructure, and the cost of living.
‘ns have had enough. But the governments, and I include this present Labor government and the previous one, no one’s interested.’
Hanson said she was embraced by new migrants at the rallies.
‘It was wonderful to see. They’re embracing me. You know, they think I’m racist against Asians? Who else am I getting hugs and kisses from? The Asian people. But they’re ns to me. They’re proud to be ns.’
She ended with a blunt message for migrants.
‘If you don’t love this country, if you don’t want a part of it, if you don’t want to assimilate, then I’ll be the one to take you to the airport and put you on a plane and wave you. Hooray.’
She said she wouldn’t be surprised if more rallies took place over the coming months.
‘ns will want to get out there now that they know these peaceful rallies can be held around the country and feel that they show their support to be n be proud of it.
Tens of thousands of nationalists, dozens of dogs and at least one horse draped in n flags and paraphernalia joined the March For rallies on Sunday in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.
Speakers and attendees were at pains to state they were not against immigrants and wanted the federal government to pause or slow the pace of immigration.
However, some of the rhetoric crossed into racism and xenophobia, with one speaker in Sydney spouting a theory about ‘a clear global agenda to shame, beat down and replace people with Anglo-Celtic and European heritage’.