One Nation leader Pauline Hanson defended telling a senator to ‘p**s off back to Pakistan’ after a Federal Court found she racially vilified the Greens member.
Senator Hanson’s legal team has filed an appeal on the judgement, saying her sledge against Mehreen Faruqi wasn’t racist as she previously told another senator to ‘go back’ to New Zealand.
Her team also claimed Senator Hanson’s comment couldn’t be considered racial vilification as she didn’t mention Senator Mehreen’s skin colour.
The news comes after Senator Hanson copped a furious spray in the Senate on Wednesday, with a parliamentary colleague branding her a ‘disgrace to the human race’.
Senator Fatima Payman, who left Labor to set up her own party earlier this year, unleashed on the One Nation leader, accusing her of racism and claiming she spread hatred and division in a fiery exchange that made headlines across the country.
But what prompted the outburst?
Senator Hanson had tabled a document in which she questioned whether Senator Payman’s Afghan citizenship disqualified her from serving in parliament.
Section 44c of the n constitution prevents anyone who holds citizenship of another country from sitting in parliament.
Senator Payman was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, but gained n citizenship in 2005.
This, however, did not automatically revoke her Afghanistan citizenship, therefore raising questions over her eligibility to sit in the senate.
Senator Payman claims that she contacted the Afghanistan embassy in in October 2021 to renounce her Afghan citizenship but they could not do it because they had no relationship with the new Taliban government.
Nevertheless, Senator Payman received legal advice from the Labor party that she had taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to revoke her foreign citizenship and was eligible.
On Wednesday, Senator Payman lashed out at the One Nation leader in parliament, suggesting she ‘go to Afghanistan and talk to the Taliban about this’.
‘All that Senator Hanson has done in this place is spread hatred, spread division,’ Senator Payman seethed.
‘I am very honoured that I live rent free in Senator Hanson’s mind, but I think you’ve got better things to do than worry about Section 44.’
Senator Hanson hit back, insisting that Senator Payman’s ‘eligibility to sit in the n Senate remains under a cloud’.
She said that the tough standards applied to elected representatives during the 2017 eligibility crisis, which saw 15 politicians lose their seats because they held dual-citizenship, had not been applied to Payman.
‘If she’d been elected in 2016 instead of 2022, she would have been referred to the High Court like all the others,’ Senator Hanson said.
‘If she’d been elected as a conservative in 2022, I suspect she’d be referred right away.’
The One Nation leader criticised the Greens for attempting to block her tabling of documents outlining her concerns about Senator Payman’s eligibility.
‘The Greens have never respected our Constitution. Marxists always despise the institutions of democracy,’ she said.
‘I’m sure they’d love to dismantle the Constitution and replace it with some version of the communist manifesto.’
Senator Hanson called on Senator Payman to provide a ‘lot more evidence’ of her attempts to revoke her Afghanistan citizenship, arguing that to fail to to do so would set a ‘dangerous precedent’.
‘There’s a very good reason why the architects of our Constitution required that our elected representatives have undivided loyalties,’ Senator Hanson said.
‘It’s also the expectation of the n people that no foreign citizen or dual citizen be permitted to sit in the seat of our democracy.’
Her comments came after Senator Payman had accused her of racism by listing previous comments made by Senator Hanson, including her first speech in which she said was ‘in danger of being swamped by Asians’ and that ‘Aboriginality would no longer exist’ if her party were in power.
‘If that is not racist, what is it?’ Senator Payman yelled as she slammed her fist down on the table in the Senate.
Independent Ralph Babet could be seen over Senator Payman’s shoulder, trying to contain his shock at the outburst.
‘Oh it’s not racist?’ Senator Payman added, sarcastically.
‘Somebody bring the dictionary because Senator Hanson does not know the definition of racism.
‘The fact that you would say just weeks ago to Senator Faruqi, “piss off back to Pakistan”; you’re not just vindictive, mean, nasty, you bring disgrace to the human race. No dignity whatsoever as a senator in this prestigious place.’
Lidia Thorpe could be heard repeatedly shouting ‘You are a convicted racist!’.
Senator Hanson, who was sitting within touching distance of Senator Payman, calmly asked the Senate president for the accusation of racism to be withdrawn.
After being reminded by the president that accusing somebody of being a racist was a breach of the standing orders, Senator Payman reluctantly withdrew her comments.
‘For the benefit of this chamber I will withdraw, but you know what Senator Hanson? How do you live with yourself Senator Hanson with so much violent hatred?’ she asked.
Senator Hanson justified her actions In a lengthy post on Tuesday evening.
‘Senator Payman is likely using her position in the Senate to automatically register a political party, one that may influence the outcome of the next federal election,’ the One Nation leader wrote.
‘And yet Senator Payman may be ineligible to sit in the Senate.
‘The Prime Minister’s failure to take the appropriate action risks undermining the integrity of our elections and the confidence of the n people in the integrity of our parliament.’
As for her legal battle with Senator Faruqi, Senator Hanson is using nearly $700,000 donated by supporters to help fund her impressive legal team.
She will be represented by leading barrister Sue Chrysathanou and her solicitor Anthony Jeffries, who also represents Lisa Wilkinson in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.
Justice Angus Stewart finding on November 1 found Senator Hanson’s post of X, formerly Twitter, broke section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and was an ‘angry personal attack’ and conveyed a ‘strong form of racism’.
However, Senator Hanson’s attack wasn’t racist as ‘it only targeted Senator Faruqi, there is no explicit or implicit reference to colour’.
‘It was not pleaded nor put to Senator Hanson that the Hanson tweet targeted immigrants (generally) and ‘people of colour’,’ the defence documents seen by news.com.au stated.
Senator Hanson’s team also argued against accusations the post was anti-Muslim.
‘The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet targets Muslims and conveys an anti-Muslim message, in circumstances where there was not a single implicit or explicit reference to Islam in the Hanson tweet,’ it said.
‘…The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet was reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate groups of people by reference to the groups “people of colour who are migrants to or are ns of relatively recent migrant heritage” and “Muslims who are people of colour in “.
‘None of these groups were pleaded by Senator Faruqi, and Senator Hanson was not given notice that these groups would be the subject of adverse findings against her until the publication of the judgment.’
Senator Payman broke ranks with Labor in May this year, accusing her former party of failing to adequately respond to Israel’s alleged war crimes in the Gaza strip.
She subsequently set up her own party called ‘s Voice in October.