Lidia Thorpe issues rare public apology to Pauline Hanson

Lidia Thorpe has issued a rare public apology to Pauline Hanson, after her stunt on breakfast television sent legal letters flying.

Lidia Thorpe has issued a rare public apology to Pauline Hanson for calling her a convicted racist after the barb sent legal letters flying.

The One Nation leader had issued defamation warnings to Ms Thorpe and Channel 9’s Today show after the senator labelled her “a convicted racist” on the program on November 28.

Previously, she had yelled the slur at Senator Hanson in the Senate chamber.

Today then swiftly issued a clarification with the ABC also following suit after Senator Thorpe repeated the remarks outside the chamber without the protection of parliamentary privilege against defamation claims.

On Monday, Senator Thorpe followed suit, issuing an apology of sorts to Senator Hanson.

“My comments about Hanson last week referred to the federal court ruling that found she racially vilified a senator, contravened the Racial Discrimination Act and exhibited a strong form of racism,” Ms Thorpe wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“To clarify, I was mistaken that she was ‘convicted’ because it was a civil case.

“Sorry about that Pauline!”

Senator Pauline Hanson during Question Time in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Senator Thorpe stages a protest as Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception in Canberra. Picture: Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS

Senator Hanson fired off the warning to Senator Thorpe and Today last week. Marked “Urgent Defamation”, it warned 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 warned.

“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.

“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.”

Mehreen Faruqi pictured exiting Federal Court. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Nine issues clarification statement

Nine issued a statement on Thursday evening stating Today “wishes to clarify that Senator Hanson has not been criminally convicted of racism, and any suggestion to the contrary is unequivocally withdrawn”.

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”.

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.”

Senator Pauline Hanson, Senator Fatima Payman and Senator Lidia Thorpe in the Senate at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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.

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”.

“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 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 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”.

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”.