Pauline Hanson unleashes; Brooke Boney slams One Nation leader’s ‘disgusting’ public housing remarks
Pauline Hanson has doubled down on her controversial comments about Melbourne’s public housing hard lockdown victims after she was axed from her regular TV spot.
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Pauline Hanson has continued her attack on victims of Melbourne’s public housing hard lockdown, claiming her controversial comments were an “honest assessment of failures in the management of multiculturalism” in Australia.
The One Nation leader yesterday took aim at tenants of Melbourne’s nine commission flats that have been locked down due to coronavirus outbreak fears, suggesting some did not adhere to safety messages because they did not speak English and labelled others “drug addicts” and “alcoholics”.
No one is allowed out of the fenced-off towers in Flemington and North Melbourne while residents are tested and the source of the outbreaks tracked.
The Queensland Senator said she “respected people from many different nations and cultures” but the nation could not “stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t have our problems”.
“My comments in the media this week reflected an honest assessment of failures in the management of our multiculturalism that have now come back to bite us during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms Hanson said.
“The pandemic has revealed that the failure to assimilate into Australian culture and learn English can indirectly be deadly. Governments of all persuasions are guilty of being soft on promoting assimilation and the need for English language proficiency, for the benefit of the individual and society as a whole.”
She claimed health advice during the pandemic has only been published in English, which meant “many residents from non-English speaking backgrounds, who have rejected the English language, missed the safety message. “
“We now have an emerging second wave and the Melbourne housing apartment harsh lockdown. The two weeks in quarantine for the 3000 residents will be aided by taxpayer-funded food, alcohol and drug deliveries, government financial handouts, and more than 500 police guards,” she said.
Earlier, Today show reporter Brooke Boney criticised Hanson’s “disgusting” comments on public housing tenants and is “so happy” the One Nation leader has been dumped as a regular guest on the morning show.
“I am so happy to see her gone,” Boney said on the ABC’s Q&A program last night.
Boney said she was “completely heartbroken” when she heard the Queensland Senator’s comments who labelled some tenants “alcoholics” and “drug addicts”
“I grew up in Housing Commission. To me, I was thinking about all of those kids sitting at home watching,” she said.
“All of those people trapped in their apartments, watching and thinking, ‘This is what Australia thinks of us. This is what the rest of our country thinks – is that we’re alcoholics and drug addicts’.
“And that’s disgusting.
“I’m all for free speech, and I think that people, when they have different perspectives and different opinions, that most of the time it does help drive argument forward or debate forward or policy forward.
“But when you use it to vilify people, or to be deliberately mean and mean-spirited, it’s …. that, to me, is disgusting.
“She says hurtful things about Aboriginal people as well that upset me.”
Hanson yesterday rejected the Nine Network’s claims she was being “divisive” and was “ill-informed” when she criticised those in the locked-down towers during her regular Monday appearance on the Today show.
Hanson told Andrew Bolt on Sky News she did not believe she was being “divisive”.
She also said she didn’t care if Nine banned her after she was previously taken off Seven’s Sunrise program.
She also rejected Nine’s claims she was “ill-informed”. She added that she “couldn’t care less” about the ban Nine imposed on her.
“As long as I’m a member of parliament, I’m going to keep speaking out and saying what I feel, what needs to be said if we’re going to have a cohesive society,” she said.
I’m up for election in two years time, if they don’t want me, good. Don’t vote for me. That’s as simple as that. until then, they’ve got me for the next two years. And if you don’t like it stiff bickies.”
Hanson also rejected claims she was being racist.
“Having criticism is not racism,” she said.
“I’m not racist and people misuse that word when they disagree with what you have to say.”
Wearing a top with an Australian flag on it, she told Bolt Australians are proud of who they are.
She said it was important to hold on to “our freedom of speech”.
“I’m not disrespectful to people but I will call out the way I see it which is in tune with a lot of Australians,” she added.
Nine’s news director, Darren Wick, yesterday said in a statement: “The Today show has advised Pauline Hanson that she will no longer be appearing on our program as a regular contributor.
“We don’t shy away from diverse opinions and robust debate on the Today show. But this morning’s accusations from Pauline Hanson were ill-informed and divisive.
“At a time of uncertainty in this national and global health crisis, Australians have to be united and supportive of one another. We need to get through this together.”
Many have reacted to Hanson’s comments including actor Daniel Macpherson who accused Nine of being disingenuous with its statement.
“No bullsh*t pats on the back for #Today,” Macpherson wrote on Twitter. “You knew exactly who you booked.“
Radio host Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehman responded: “I can’t believe Australia’s best known racist came on our show and said something racist!!!“
Hanson told her followers on social media she was standing by her comments.
“Everything I said this morning was true and I stand by all my comments,” she said.
“It’s being reported I made ‘a number of controversial comments’ this morning. I’ve gone back over the interview and I’m struggling to see what I said that was so controversial.”
Hanson was previously a regular on Seven’s Sunrise program, quitting the show in March 2019 in protest over her treatment over her “treatment” by host David Koch.
The departure came after a fiery segment about the mass murder in Christchurch by an alleged right-wing extremist born in Australia.
At the time, Koch said the alleged killer’s manifesto read like One Nation’s immigration and Muslim policy.
“Do you feel complicit with this atrocity?” he asked.
Senator Hanson responded: “Go out to Fairfield and out to these other areas. Go and ask the Lebanese Christians what’s happened to their country. They’ll tell you exactly, and they’re in fear of the same thing happening here”.
Before Senator Hanson revealed she had quit the show, Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell said she was still welcome on Sunrise.
In May last year, in an interview with former Today host Deb Knight, Senator Hanson took aim at the Nine program when asked about poll figures showing her party’s primary vote had collapsed.
“I’ve actually gone up since the last election, unlike your show, Deb, since you’ve actually taken over,” Senator Hanson shot back, before hitting Knight with a further burn, “You’ve actually gone down in your viewership.”
Originally published as Pauline Hanson unleashes; Brooke Boney slams One Nation leader’s ‘disgusting’ public housing remarks