Human Rights Commission to investigate Pauline Hanson’s ‘racist’ tweet
Pauline Hanson will be investigated after she told another senator to “p**s off back to Pakistan” on Twitter.
The Australian Human Rights Commission will investigate a racism complaint lodged against One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi made the complaint after Senator Hanson wrote on Twitter that Senator Faruqi should “p**s off back to Pakistan”.
Senator Faruqi said on Friday morning the AHRC had accepted her complaint.
“People who have been told ‘go back to where you came from’ carry the scars of racism. So many have encouraged me to hold Senator Hanson’s attack to account,” Senator Faruqi said.
“In this day and age, you’d be hard-pressed to find a workplace that would allow someone to racially vilify a colleague without consequence, but sadly Senator Hanson has not been held to account by the Senate.
“I’m glad the Human Rights Commission has accepted my complaint of racial discrimination and look forward to engaging with the commission.”
Senator Hanson posted the tweet after Senator Faruqi called Queen Elizabeth II “the leader of a racist empire” after the monarch’s death.
“Condolences to those who knew the Queen,” Senator Faruqi wrote on Twitter on September 9.
“I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples.”
A spokesman for Senator Hanson declined to comment directly on Senator Faruqi’s complaint but said “any Australian citizen who considers The Greens’ conduct in relation to the Queen to be offensive should refer them to the Human Rights Commission”.
The Greens attempted to censure Senator Hanson in the upper house last month, but the motion was amended to instead condemn all forms of racism.
Senator Faruqi gave a passionate speech to the chamber on September 27, saying she had a right to talk about the issue “without being racially vilified”.
Senators Penny Wong and Simon Birmingham co-sponsored an amendment to The Greens’ motion, which removed the offensive language and removed the censure of Senator Hanson specifically.
Instead, it called on senators to “engage in debates and commentary respectfully and to refrain from inflammatory and divisive comments, both inside and outside the chamber at all times”.
Senator Hanson refused to retract her comments and doubled down on her attack, offering to take The Greens senator to the airport herself.
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