One Nation leader plans to climb Uluru in fight to keep it open

Controversial One Nation leader Pauline Hanson plans to climb Uluru today as the countdown to it being closed to climbers nears.

Pauline Hanson has taken her mission to keep Uluru open to the site itself, meeting with Aboriginal elders and climbing the rock today.

The One Nation leader, who controversially compared shutting Uluru to closing Bondi Beach, posted to Facebook she planned to climb Ayers Rock once the wind had dropped off.

“The Anangu Mayatja Council of Elders have invited me to the Rock for discussions about their future following my calls for the climb to remain open,” she wrote.

“I arrived yesterday afternoon and held talks with the two sons of Paddy Uluru who was the traditional owner and other family members.

“Today I will meet with around 15 of their Anangu Mayatja Council of Elders.”

Ms Hanson this afternoon clarified that she had been “given permission by Anangu Mayatja Council of Elders, Mr Reggie Uluru and Mr Cassidy Uluru to climb the Rock”.

She said both were senior traditional owners of Uluru.

Ms Hanson pointed out taxpayers didn’t fund the flights to the outback.

The Uluru climb will close for good on October 26.

Last month Ms Hanson and radio host Steve Price appeared on the Today show to argue why the sacred rock should stay open to climbers.

The breakfast show’s choice of having Price and Ms Hanson, both caucasian Australians, debate the topic alongside host Deb Knight, also a caucasian Australian, was lashed on social media, with dozens of Australians describing the debate as “racist” and “unbalanced”.

TOUCH DOWN AT ULURU

Find out more: https://t.co/ChK4XVffNG #auspol pic.twitter.com/NM9NbxKpnD

— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) August 20, 2019

READ MORE: Hanson’s ‘sickening’ stunt mocked

Ms Hanson criticised the closure and said it was “no different to coming out and saying, ‘We’re going to close down Bondi Beach because there are some people that have drowned’. How ridiculous is that?”

She said nothing needed to change because “we’ve been climbing the Ayers Rock, or Uluru, for many years”.

“The Australian taxpayers put in millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into it and they’re wanting another $27.5 million to upgrade the airport there for the resort,” she said.

“Now the resort has only returned $19 million to the taxpayers only just recently. It employs over 400 people there, 38 per cent are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

“The fact is, it’s money-making. It’s giving jobs to indigenous communities, and you’ve got thousands of tourists who go there every year and want to climb the rock.”

Australia, you are exhausting. https://t.co/Y5yLXV8xLK

— Benjamin Law 羅旭能 (@mrbenjaminlaw) July 14, 2019

In November 2017, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board started the countdown of when the climb would be closed permanently.

Ms Hanson said she was struggling to understand the “cultural sensitivity” around Uluru.

“It is an iconic site for all Australians,” she said.

“I can’t see the cultural sensitivity when people have been climbing the rock for all these years, and all of a sudden they want to shut it down? I don’t get it, I really don’t get it, and how are they going to pay back the Australian taxpayer?”

Since setting the date, the number of people climbing Uluru has skyrocketed.

Before park management announced it was closing the climb, around 140 people were climbing Uluru each day.