Pauline Hanson threatens legal action against Nine, Lidia Thorpe

Pauline Hanson has fired off defamation warnings to Senator Lidia Thorpe and Nine’s Today show after she was described as “a convicted racist” on national TV.

EXCLUSIVE

Pauline Hanson has fired off a defamation warning against Senator Lidia Thorpe and Nine’s Today show after she described her as “a convicted racist” on national TV.

News.com.au has confirmed that legal letters have been sent this morning to Senator Lidia Thorpe and Channel 9 after an interview on the Today Show.

Marked “Urgent Defamation”, it warns further action will follow unless Senator Thorpe apologises.

“This morning you gave an interview broadcast on the Nine Network during the Today Show in which you referred to our client,” the letter states.

“You alleged during that interview that Senator Hanson has been convicted of racism. That never occurred.”

“No such criminal offence was raised against our client and no such conviction exists.

“It is highly irresponsible of you to have used this language on national television. It cannot have occurred innocently given how self-evidently false your claim is.

Pauline Hanson has warned Senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) and Channel 9’s Today show of defamation after Thorpe called her “a convicted racist” on air, stating that such a claim is false and demands an apology. Picture: Nine/ Today Show

“We require you to immediately and publicly withdraw the allegation that our client stands convicted of a criminal offence and to apologise to her for your inappropriate conduct.

“You are a public servant who has a platform that should be used responsibly. Part of that involves urgently correcting yourself when you speak in error.

“We look forward to your prompt response.”

Nine issued a statement on Thursday evening stating the Today Show “wishes to clarify that Senator Hanson has not been criminally convicted of racism, and any suggestion to the contrary is unequivocally withdrawn.”“A judge of the Federal Court of Australia found that to the civil standard of proof, Senator Hanson had engaged in conduct in contravention of the Racial Discrimination Act,” the statement continued, acknowledging the finding is the subject of an appeal.

Senator Hanson is being represented by barrister Sue Chrysanthou and solicitor Anthony Jeffries.

Senator Hanson was recently found by the Federal Court to have engaged in racial discrimination against Mehreen Faruqi when she tweeted the Greens senator should “pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”

Hanson has previously faced a civil finding for racial discrimination, but it does not equate to a criminal conviction, which Thorpe inaccurately implied. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

But that is a civil finding, now under appeal, and does not constitute a finding that she is a “convicted racist.”

Separately, Senator Thorpe took aim at Australia in general as “racist.”

“This is a very racist, divided country,” she told reporters.

“But that’s not what we want, we want peace, we want liberation, we want self determination. We want to decide our own destinies, not this place with the native police.”

Federal Court judgment under appeal

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has hit back over a Federal Court finding that she racially vilified Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi by telling her to “p*ss off back to Pakistan” in a new legal filing that insists the sledge was not racist.

In newly-filed appeal documents Senator Hanson also says she previously told another Senator to go back to New Zealand.

In essence, her team has argued Senator Hanson telling a colleague to go back to Pakistan wasn’t racist because she never mentioned Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s skin colour.

Senator Hanson raises nearly $700,000 to defend her ‘right to free speech’

Senator Hanson is cashed-up and ready to fight, with supporters donating nearly $700,000 to help pay for her legal team.

She is being represented by leading barrister Sue Chrysanthou, and her solicitor is Anthony Jeffries, who also represents Channel 10’s Lisa Wilkinson in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.

The original legal dispute is not a defamation case but rather relates to racial vilification.

In a summary of his judgment on November 1, Justice Angus Stewart described Senator Hanson’s post on Twitter, now X, as an “angry personal attack” that conveyed a “strong form of racism”.

But her legal team has now hit back in legal documents filed with the Federal Court, insisting the encouragement to leave the country was not racist at all because “it only targeted Senator Faruqi, there is no explicit or implicit reference to colour.”

Senator Hanson has raised nearly $700,000 for her legal defence appeal against a finding of racial vilification related to a tweet aimed at Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi (pictured). Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“It was not pleaded nor put to Senator Hanson that the Hanson tweet targeted immigrants (generally) and “people of colour”,’’ the defence states.

The defence also argues it was wrong to suggest the social media post was anti-Muslim.

“The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet targets Muslims and conveys an anti-Muslim message ([223]), in circumstances where there was not a single implicit or explicit reference to Islam in the Hanson tweet,’’ the document states.

“The primary judge asked himself the wrong question in holding that the appropriate reasoning process was putting himself in the position of the “reasonable victim” and seeing matters from that person’s perspective ([241]).

“The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet was reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate groups of people by reference to the groups “people of colour who are migrants to Australia or are Australians of relatively recent migrant heritage” and “Muslims who are people of colour in Australia”.

“None of these groups were pleaded by Senator Faruqi, and Senator Hanson was not given notice that these groups would be the subject of adverse findings against her until the publication of the judgment.”

Background to a blow-up

The background dates back to September 2022, when Senator Faruqi took to X (formerly Twitter) with the following post regarding Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

“Condolences to those who mourn the Queen. I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised people,” she wrote.

“We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies & becoming a republic.”

Senator Pauline Hanson responded with the following tweet:

“Your attitude appals 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 p*ss off back to Pakistan. – PH”

Senator Thorpe walks out after throwing papers at One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, November 27, 2024. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

In a landmark ruling, Senator Mehreen Faruqi successfully argued that Senator Pauline Hanson’s social media post violated section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (RDA).

An emotional Faruqi hugged her legal team after the original judgment was handed down this month, and Senator Faruqi said the win sent “a strong message to racists that they will be held accountable” and made clear that “hate speech is not free speech”.

“Today is a win for every single person who has been told to go back to where they came from, and believe me, there are too many of us,” Faruqi said, adding that the case had taken “a very personal toll”.

The judgment was “an affirmation for migrants that people of colour do not have to be grateful or to keep quiet”, she said: “I will be speaking out more loudly and more strongly than ever before.

“Today’s judgment is a landmark … It is a warning for people like Pauline Hanson, and I do hope it emboldens individuals and communities to assert their right to live free from racism.”

In an interview with Sky News host Andrew Bolt after the verdict, Ms Hanson broke down in tears saying Australia was “not the country I grew up in” and that “people can’t say what they think anymore”.