The legal team representing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson informed a court that Hanson had advised a white senator to return to their birth country, as Hanson defends herself against a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi over a tweet telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”. Faruqi, who migrated from Pakistan in 1992 and is the deputy leader of the Greens, is seeking court orders to have Hanson delete the post, undergo anti-racism training at her own expense, and make a $150,000 donation to a charity of Faruqi’s choice.
The Federal Court trial began in Sydney before Justice Angus Stewart, with Faruqi and Hanson facing off over the allegedly discriminatory tweet posted by Hanson on September 9, 2022. Faruqi’s barrister, Saul Holt, KC, argued during closing submissions that Hanson’s tweet was a variation of a well-known, anti-migrant, racist phrase telling someone to “go back to where you came from,” and that the tweet was clearly targeting a brown, Muslim, migrant senator, like Faruqi, by a high-profile figure known for hateful speech against people with those characteristics.
Hanson’s legal team countered by presenting a clip from a 2018 episode of Seven’s Sunrise program in which Hanson told then-senator Derryn Hinch, a white Australian citizen born in New Zealand, to “pack your bags and get on the next plane out of the country” and “go back to New Zealand”, adding that Hinch could return “when you’ve got some manners.” This move was made in response to a question posed to Hanson the day before regarding whether she had ever told a white migrant to go back to their birth country.
The lawsuit brought by Faruqi against Hanson is based on racial discrimination laws, with Faruqi seeking consequences for Hanson’s tweet, such as its deletion, anti-racism training for Hanson at her own expense, and a $150,000 donation to a charity chosen by Faruqi. The case has drawn attention due to the charged nature of Hanson’s alleged comments and the clash between the two senators, with both sides presenting their arguments in court during the Federal Court trial in Sydney. The trial is expected to conclude after several days of proceedings.
The back-and-forth at the trial between Faruqi’s legal team and Hanson’s representatives has centered on the interpretation of Hanson’s tweet, with Faruqi’s barrister claiming it was a clear case of racist language targeting a brown, Muslim, migrant senator, while Hanson’s team sought to create a parallel with her past statements to a white senator to suggest consistency in her actions. The outcome of the trial before Justice Angus Stewart remains to be seen, as the two senators dispute the alleged racial discrimination in Hanson’s tweet and the appropriate consequences in response to it.
