One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has promised to tear up all of Australia’s “hate speech” laws, and criticised the government for scapegoating the “far-right” after the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
She made the comments in an interview with Scott Challen from the Australian Lobby Group in Canberra earlier this month where she also said now-disbanded activist group the National Socialist Network (NSN) had a right to exist, and should have been judged by voters instead of targeted with new “hate groups” laws.
The Queensland senator, whose party is now well ahead of the Coalition in several major polls, pointed out that legal expert Anne Twomey warned even One Nation could be banned under the same laws, and declared “that’s not democracy, that’s not freedom of speech, and I will repeal them”.
“Will One Nation commit to repealing the 2025–2026 Hate Speech laws in full, including Section 18C, and instead rely on existing criminal, civil, and defamation laws being properly enforced rather than expanding speech controls?” Mr Challen asked.
“We opposed the hate speech laws, and we explained why – I think it’s taken away people’s freedom of speech or freedom of opinion,” Ms Hanson replied.
“I think that you’ve got to have protection for people, if they want to go out and preach their hate which creates violence or inciting violence, that needs to be dealt with, sure, but my concern is people have a right to actually have an opinion.”
“I will repeal them.”
She went on to criticise Anthony Albanese for not being able to say “radical Islam” and deflecting to “right-wing extremism” after Bondi, and when asked whether the NSN and their planned political party White Australia had a right to exist, replied: “Yes, they do.”
“And it’s up to the people of Australia to vote for it or not for it. And don’t take my answer that I support them at all,” she said.
“It’s not about your colour of your skin. And that’s why I don’t agree with them. It’s not about the colour of your skin. It’s about the person themselves and we have to look at the character and do they want to be Australian.
“And we’ve had so many wonderful people here from different cultural backgrounds that are Australian. They come up and they grab me, they embrace me, you know, and and hug me and and they’re proud Australians.
“It’s got nothing to do with the colour. I’ve had people from all different cultural backgrounds stand as candidates for One Nation.”
Later in the interview when asked about One Nation’s immigration policy, Ms Hanson said she was sticking with a net migration limit of 130,000 a year, but insisted Australia needed immigration to fill “skills shortages” and to bring families together.
“We used to have about 80,000 or 100,000 a year and that was in the early 90s. You’ve got a lot of families out there who would dearly love to have their loved one come out to Australia. I think that you got to have a bit of a door open there,” she said.
“We’ve got up to 200,000 people that leave our country every year. So, all you’re doing is, even if we replace them around about 130,000, we’re still going, you know, managing and in a managed way, to need people that come in with the skills that we need.
“This country is going backwards because we don’t have the right people, the skills, to come and fill those positions here that we need. It’s not just about visas, people want to come out here to make a life change for them, but bring those skills whether they’re doctors or people that we really need their skills.
“So you’ve got to leave the door open to make that permanent move, because on visas they won’t bring out their families and make that permanent move.”
The post Pauline Hanson vows to rip up ‘hate speech’ laws – says NSN has right to exist first appeared on The Noticer.
The NoticerRead More
R1
T1
