Pauline Hanson is challenging a court ruling that her 2022 tweet to Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi was 'seriously offensive' and intimidating. The One Nation leader's barrister argued on Monday that the comments were not racist but aimed at exposing hypocrisy.
During a federal court appeal hearing, Sue Chrysanthou SC said Hanson's remarks were a response to Faruqi's criticism of the monarchy after Queen Elizabeth II's death. Faruqi had tweeted that she could not mourn the leader of a 'racist empire', prompting Hanson to tell her to 'pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan'.
Chrysanthou argued that the tweet was an attack on Faruqi's personal views, not her race, and that the court must consider the context of political debate on X (formerly Twitter). She noted that other politicians, including Greens leader Adam Bandt, had also been told to leave Australia after calling for a republic.
In November 2024, Justice Angus Stewart found the tweet breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, ruling it would offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate migrants of colour. He described the phrase 'go back to where you came from' as a racist trope rooted in the White Australia Policy.
The appeal continues.
