Pauline Hanson was branded a “scumbag” by a fellow senator during a highly charged parliamentary debate in the wake of an incendiary tweet Hanson posted about Greens politician Mehreen Faruqi.
The Greens introduced a motion on Tuesday calling on the Senate to censure Hanson “for her divisive, anti-migrant and racist statement telling senator Faruqi to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’, which does not reflect the opinions of the Australian Senate or the Australian people”.
Labor and the Coalition amended the Greens censure push, with the major parties voting to remove Hanson’s name and her comments from the motion, instead replacing those words with a general call for respectful debate.
Immediately afterwards, in her own speech on the motion, Hanson angrily refused to retract her earlier statements and doubled down by saying she would “take [Faruqi] to the airport”.
The fiery debate was paused several times as the Senate president, Sue Lines, demanded senators not interrupt one another. Hanson’s comments saw Greens senator Jordon Steele-John angrily call her an “absolute scumbag”.
. @MehreenFaruqi powerfully speaking in the chamber about the heinously racist remarks made against her by Pauline Hanson last week. Here is an opportunity for this government to sincerely condemn racism and hold those who spew hatred to account.
— Senator Jordon Steele-John (@SenatorJordon) September 27, 2022
I hope they take it.
The standoff between the two senators began on 9 September, the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, when Faruqi tweeted: “I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples.”
Hanson quote-tweeted that post to her own followers, replying: “Your attitude appalls and disgusts me. When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”
Faruqi said she and her family had been subjected to racist hate speech from others on social media after Hanson’s tweet, telling Guardian Australia: “The community, particularly migrants of colour, need to see parliament strongly condemn senator Hanson without delay.”
The amendments co-sponsored by the government and opposition Senate leaders, Penny Wong and Simon Birmingham, removed the reference to Hanson’s comments telling Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan”. Instead it asked senators “to engage in debates and commentary respectfully, and to refrain from inflammatory and divisive comments, both inside and outside the chamber at all times”. The Wong-Birmingham amendment removed Hanson’s name entirely from the motion.
Faruqi noted the censure was a symbolic motion, but said a censure would be the minimum she believed was necessary.
“Labor’s amendment really lets senator Hanson off scot-free and gives her a free pass to do this again and again, as she has done in the past,” Faruqi said.
“We have to name and shame racism and the perpetrators of racism.”
Hanson did not apologise in her speech, instead accusing the Greens of hypocrisy and noting media reporting of alleged unprofessional conduct by senator Lidia Thorpe.
She denied she had exhibited racist behaviour, and accused the Greens of “intimidation” by branding her a racist.
“I have always fought for equality for all Australians, regardless of race,” Hanson claimed.
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“Criticism is not racism.”
During the debate, she referred to her infamous claim that Australia would be “swamped by Asians”, and also claimed European migrants had formerly worn “as a badge of honour” the racial epithet ‘“wog”.
“Everyone has a right to have a say,” Hanson said.
“I will not retract what I’ve told senator Faruqi or any other Australian who’s come here for a new way of life, [who] disrespect what’s Australian to me. She can go, [as] I’ve said – I make the offer as well to take her to the airport.”
That final comment prompted howls of outrage from the Greens members in the chamber – including the comment from Steele-John.
In her contribution, Wong said the government had amended the Greens motion so as not to repeat Hanson’s contribution in the Senate. She also said censure should not be the default response to such comments, even as she criticised Hanson herself.
“I condemn senator Hanson’s comments without reservation, I think they’re appalling,” Wong said.
The foreign minister said she herself had been subjected to similar racial abuse.
“I’m the Senate leader, I still get triggered … How long do you have to be here and how much do you have to love this country before you’re accepted?” Wong asked.
Birmingham’s speech asked senators to “stay out of the gutter, rise above the Twitterverse. Play the ball, not the person.”
“There is no place in this parliament for racism or discrimination,” he said.