Is it possible Pauline Hanson is learning?

Pauline Hanson has twice called out racism in recent times. Some might call it cynical politicking, but I’d like to think she may finally have had a penny drop moment, writes Paul Williams.

Racism is especially ugly when you see it up close.

I saw bigotry stripped bare in 1998 at a public forum designed to reveal scholarly research into why the new One Nation Party had netted almost one in four votes at the state election.

But the hordes of ONP supporters bussed in from across Queensland turned it into a Hanson rally.

I remember protesters booed at the finding that, in 1998, ONP voters were disproportionately older blue-collar blokes, without a tertiary education, living in regional Queensland. They assumed that was something to be ashamed of.

But I also remember a young Asian family — dad, mum, and a couple of tiny kids — innocently strolling in. Then I heard the dark mutterings from Hansonites making it clear only certain people belonged.

The sickness I felt that night returned on the weekend when I saw a video of a mob of privileged white Kentucky high school kids taunting two Native Americans singing and drumming a spiritual song. The fact one of the men was an ageing Vietnam veteran shouldn’t need restating.

If the boys’ motives were not immediately clear, their Donald Trump MAGA hats and “build the wall” chant connected the dots.

A teenager wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat stands sneering at an elderly Native American war vet singing and playing a drum in Washington. (Survival Media Agency via AP)

But I blame Trump before I blame the boys: the President of the United States — the ostensible beacon of democracy and justice across the free world — laughingly describes a congresswoman with indigenous ancestry as “Pocahontas”.

The incident also reminded me of another in late 2017 when former Labor Senator Sam Dastyari was harassed by white supremacists in a Melbourne bar who told Dastyari to go back to Iran after accusing him of terrorism.

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It was a moment of truth for an Australian hard right that wants to go mainstream. But, wedged in the middle of a Queensland election campaign, Hanson blew it. Rather than seize an opportunity to call out this racist crap and prove she represents all Queenslanders, Hanson failed to bag the bigots and instead labelled Dastyari a “smart arse” and a “pipsqueak”.

But two more recent events have seen Hanson redeem herself just a little.

The first was last August when PHON-turned-Katter and now independent Senator Fraser Anning called for a “final solution” to the immigration question. It was an appalling reference roundly condemned by all (except Bob Katter), including Pauline Hanson who adroitly described Anning’s speech as something “straight from Goebbels’ handbook from Nazi Germany”.

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Pauline Hanson posted this in response to a racist note left on a car by a purported One National supporter.

Hanson again blotted her copybook last October when she moved — and the Coalition government stupidly supported — an “It’s OK to be White” motion in the Senate that, in far right circles, is code for white supremacy.

But Hanson acted correctly last week when an anonymous note attacking a driver’s assumed Aboriginality was left on a car at a Brisbane shopping centre. Hanson described the note’s author as “unsympathetic” and “spiteful”.

One question therefore arises: why is Hanson, after 20 years’ public life, calling out racism — even if sporadically — only now?

The cynic would say that, because the hard right of Australian politics is becoming overcrowded, Hanson needs some product differentiation. In direct competition with Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives, Katter’s Australian Party, Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, the Jacqui Lambie Network and Fraser Anning himself for Queensland’s sixth senate spot in May, Hanson might hope a bit of anti-racism will make voters fleeing the LNP a bit more comfortable in moving to One Nation.

Pauline Hanson thoroughly condemned the actions of the person who left the sickening note.

But I take a more charitable view. Perhaps Hanson, after two decades’ of exposure to folks from varied cultures and ethnicities, is finally enjoying a penny drop moment: one’s skin colour or religion has no bearing on one’s gentleness, ability to obey the law, or willingness to do a hard day’s work. In short, I’m willing to believe Hanson may have finally learned that stereotyping entire groups of people, especially those she’s never really engaged, is a dumb way to make public policy.

If so, that’s a good thing. After all, it’s never too late to learn, even for a pollie pushing retirement age.

Dr Paul Williams is a senior lecturer at Griffith University.