When the Australian Greens senator was told by the One Nation leader in a tweet to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’, was it racist?
here was a moment during Pauline Hanson’s cross examination in the federal court, where she was defending herself against an allegation of racially discriminating against a fellow senator, where she was asked if she had ever told an Australian-born Australian to leave the country.
“I probably have,” Hanson said. She couldn’t remember an example, so her legal team provided one the next day. The federal court will now decide whether Hanson telling Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan” contravenes the Racial Discrimination Act, and therefore is racist speech., not intent, and in this case an emotive example of political communication. It wasn’t “nice” or “polite” and wasn’t meant to be – but that didn’t make it racist, her counsel argued.
“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. PH”Faruqi says she was subjected to a barrage of racial and Islamophobic abuse over the tweet, which severely affected her and others. Attempts to have the matter mediated outside court failed, leading to the federal court case.
Justice Angus Stewart will have to decide if Faruqi’s complaint meets the bar of section 18c, before moving on to whether Hanson breached it. The constitutional aspect of Hanson’s defence, if considered at all, will come after.Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters.
Hanson told the court she never saw Twitter users call Faruqi an “infidel, a cow, a mutt, an Islamist snake” in response to her tweet as she “didn’t read them”.
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