Pauline Hanson racially vilified Mehreen Faruqi in tweet after Queen’s death, court finds
Senator Pauline Hanson has been found by a court to have racially vilified Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi in a tweet telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has suffered a major loss, with the Federal Court finding a tweet she posted telling Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan” was racist.
Senator Faruqi launched legal action against Senator Hanson in the Federal Court over a tweet telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”, posted on September 9, 2022.
The inflammatory exchange was sparked when the Greens deputy leader posted a tweet in the wake of the Queen’s death, declaring she “cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.
Senator Hanson fired back a heated tweet saying she was “appalled” by the post and suggesting Senator Faruqi “pack (her) bags and piss off back to Pakistan”.
Senator Faruqi claimed the tweet was racially discriminatory and provoked a “torrent of abuse”.
In his judgment, handed down on Friday, Justice Angus Stewart labelled the tweet as “an angry ad hominem attack”.
He ruled the tweet was “reasonably likely in all the circumstances” to “offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate the applicant and groups of people, namely 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.”
He found Senator Hanson had posted the tweet “because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin” of Senator Faruqi, and that the One Nation leader’s response was not made in good faith as a fair comment on a matter of public interest.
“I am comfortably satisfied that both groups of people in Australia that I have identified, being persons of colour who are migrants or of relatively recent migrant heritage and persons of colour who are Muslim, are reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to have been offended (ie profoundly and seriously), insulted, humiliated and intimidated by Senator Hanson’s tweet,” Justice Stewart said.
”There is also nothing in Senator Hanson’s tweet about the British Empire, stolen lands and wealth of colonised people, a treaty with First Nations, reparations or Australia becoming a republic; the tweet does not try to defend or comment upon British colonial history.”
Justice Stewart said nothing in Senator Hanson’s tweet was responsive to what Senator Faruqi had tweeted.
“It did not call on Senator Faruqi to apologise, or to give her wealth away, or, in terms, to stop being critical of the British Empire or Australia,” he continued.
“Rather, it told Senator Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan.”
“Senator Hanson’s tweet was merely an angry ad hominem attack devoid of discernible content (or comment) in response to what Senator Faruqi had said.”
Justice Stewart said Senator Hanson had given no reasonable justification for publishing “messages that are racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim”.
“(Senator Hanson) reverted most easily to those messages when responding to a Muslim, immigrant woman of colour in anger in the heat of the moment, which is consistent with the views that she has espoused publicly for decades,” he said.
Senator Hanson has been ordered to delete the post within seven days and cover Senator Faruqi’s legal costs.
‘Unreliable’: Hanson’s evidence slammed
Justice Stewart took aim at Senator Hanson in his judgment, calling her evidence “unreliable” and saying he was left with the impression she would “say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time”, whether true or false.
In her evidence, Senator Hanson claimed she was “disgusted” at Senator Faruqi’s tweet and her “hypocrisy”.
She claimed this was because Senator Faruqi had sworn to “bear true allegiance to the Queen” and had benefited from her position as a senator in what she had branded as a “racist empire”.
Senator Hanson said she thought Senator Faruqi would take the criticism “on the chin”.
In his judgment, Justice Stewart said he considered Senator Hanson an “argumentative” witness who often did not answer questions put to her, nor accept “obvious truths”.
One included a recording, played to the court, where Senator Hanson said she would never sell her house to a Muslim.
“She argumentatively replied that it was irrelevant because she had not sold her house – clearly the issue at stake was not what she had done but what she had said,” Justice Stewart said.
He said Senator Hanson also gave evasive answers on other public statements which were played to the court.
In cross-examination, she said that she “immediately” dictated her tweet to her staff on seeing Senator Faruqi’s tweet.
Justice Stewart said he doubted whether Senator Hanson had given thought to the wording of her tweet, as she had claimed in her affidavit, as she did not get a draft back nor consider the words or “weigh them”.
“It is inherently unbelievable, as stated by Senator Hanson, that her staff had been publishing tweets in her name for years without her having any idea that they were doing so, and that she did not know that other Twitter users respond to her tweets even though she later said that her staff reported responses to her,” he said.
“In the end, I was left with the distinct impression that Senator Hanson would say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time; she had little regard to whether what she said was true or false. Her evidence is generally unreliable.”
‘Hate speech is not free speech’: Faruqi
Outside court, Senator Faruqi described it as a landmark legal ruling that drew a line in the sand and established that “hate speech is not free speech.”
“Today is a good day for people of colour, for Muslims and those of us who have been working so hard to build an ant-racist society,” she said.
“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 who have been subjected to this ultimate racist slur far too many times in this country.”
She said Justice Stewart’s decision was “groundbreaking and historic” and sent a message that “those who subject people to racial abuse will not get away scot-free”.
“It will set a precedent for how racism is viewed in this country,” she said.
“It is a warning for those like Pauline Hanson.”
In a statement posted to X on her behalf, Senator Hanson said she was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling.
“The outcome demonstrates the inappropriately broad application of section 18C, particularly in so far as it impinges upon freedom of political expression.
“Given the importance of this matter, Senator Hanson has instructed her lawyers to prepare and lodge appeal documents.
“She will not make further comment as the matter is before the court.”
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