Today show’s deafening silence amid Pauline Hanson backlash

It was all anyone could talk about over the past 24 hours – but the show that sparked all the drama has staunchly ignored the elephant in the room.

It was one of the most heated topics in Australia over the past 24 hours – but after airing the remarks that caused all the drama, Today refused to address the Pauline Hanson-sized elephant in the room on this morning’s show.

Co-hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon carefully avoided any mention of Senator Hanson or the heavily criticised tirade she launched during their program on Monday, despite other Nine stars condemning her and the network announcing via a statement that she’d been dumped as a “regular contributor”.

Today’s Twitter account also appears to have deleted a clip of the segment shared across the platform yesterday morning.

The One Nation leader’s spectacular offensive against the Melbourne residents trapped inside nine housing commission towers caused major backlash for Today, after she branded them “drug addicts” and declared they should have “learned English” before coming to Australia.

Pauline Hanson’s appearance on Today caused major backlash.

Within hours, Nine announced it was pulling the plug on Ms Hanson’s Today slot, saying her comments went too far.

“The Today show has advised Pauline Hanson that she will no longer be appearing on our program as a regular contributor,” Nine’s director of news and current affairs Darren Wick said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

“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.”

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— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) July 6, 2020

Ms Hanson was picked up by the Nine breakfast show in May last year and, until yesterday, had a regular Monday spot at 6.45am on the “news chat” segment – which she has used to spout a number of controversial statements.

She made a defiant TV appearance in the wake of her axing, showing up in an Australian flag sweatshirt for an interview with Andrew Bolt on Sky News last night, where she reiterated the comments she’d made on Today.

The Senator insisted immigrants should speak English as their first language and said she “didn’t regret” any of her comments.

“I couldn’t care less about whether I go on Channel 9 or not,” she said.

“I have my Facebook page, I connect with people. I don’t really care about Channel 9 or Channel 7.”

She told Bolt she didn’t regret her comments. Picture: Sky News

Asked by Bolt about Nine’s comments, Hanson said: “I don’t believe I was divisive at all; I raised issues that have concerned me for 25 years.”

She said that for immigrants coming to live in Australia: “English should be your first language and … you should learn English.

“People have been in this country for many, many years and still don’t know English.”

Residents look out from the North Melbourne public housing estate after it was put into lockdown on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

During her Today appearance on Monday, Langdon put it to the Senator that some of the Melbourne tower residents hadn’t had a proper meal since Saturday.

“Ah come on Ally, we’ve seen food being delivered there,” Ms Hanson replied.

“The fact is a lot of them are drug addicts as well, they are getting their medication, they are alcoholics so they’re being looked after in that way.

“They are actually getting paid extra money. Why are they getting paid extra money? For what? They are not leaving the premises.”

Ms Hanson went on to say that an inability to speak English had led to the towers being shut down.

“A lot of these people are from non-English speaking backgrounds, probably English is their second language, who haven’t adhered to the rules of social distancing. They all used a lot of the same laundry,” she said.