All-round condemnation for Pauline Hanson over Indigenous slur

Government and opposition joined in criticising Pauline Hanson over her comments on a podcast last year declaring that Australia’s original occupants had “achieved nothing”.

Hanson’s derogatory remarks about First Nations people became a fresh issue for her on Monday, hard on the heels of the row over her criticism of Anthony Albanese’s late mother – for living too long in public housing – that surfaced at the weekend. The comments about Maryanne Albanese were made on a podcast done earlier this year. Hanson’s critics are carefully trawling her past comments.

Hanson told the conservative “JJ Podcast” that Australia’s Indigenous people were “the most primitive race on earth, and we’re supposed to be holding them up and saying what they’ve achieved. They’ve achieved nothing.”

She said a Western Australian teacher had written to her saying the curriculum had neglected teaching Australian history and had changed to be “leaning towards this Aboriginal culture and language.

"For what? What the hell have they done in this country? Supposedly 60,000 years, they’d never invented the wheel. There was nothing there.

"What are we actually holding up? A few rock paintings?”

The Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said the comments were “totally outrageous, completely racist, but also divides our country in a way that we do not want to see happen right here in Australia”.

“What is really disappointing here is that that kind of commentary separates First Nations people unnecessarily from the rest of the country in terms of our culture, our songs, our stories.”

Asked whether she’d consider a censure motion in parliament against Hanson, McCarthy said: “what the Senate chooses to do […] we will see in due course”.

The Senate last year censured and suspended Hanson for seven sitting days over wearing a burqa into the chamber. She was also censured in March for questioning whether there were any good Muslims.

Back in 2022 the Senate passed a censure of her comment to Greens Senator Mahreen Faruqi that she should “piss off back to Pakistan”. Faruqi won a court judgement against Hanson under the Racial Discrimination Act’s section 18C.

Nationals’ leader Matt Canavan said he disagreed with Hanson’s characterisation. “I think we have lots to be proud of, all different parts of our history that make up our tapestry of what is Australia,” he told the ABC. Hanson’s remarks were silly, wrong and divisive, but he did not support moving against her in the Senate.

Liberal frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price posted:

Senator Hanson’s statement asking, ‘What the hell have they done in this country?’, is a demonstration of wilful ignorance on her part and reveals her complete failure to understand Australia’s First Peoples.

“All decent Australians, I’m sure, would condemn such comments and would rightfully be shocked that they came from the leader of a political party.

"Some of the issues raised by Pauline Hanson are serious debates, many of which I have been very vocal about, but yet again, Senator Hanson has dragged the conversation into appalling territory.”

Her Liberal colleague Andrew Hastie shared Price’s statement saying “Disgraceful from Hanson”, adding that “Aussies” would back Price “100%”.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, who is also Indigenous, said:

For thousands of generations, First Peoples have cared for this continent, developed sophisticated systems of lore, knowledge, agriculture, land management, science and art, and maintained rich living cultures that continue today.