Pauline Hanson racially vilified Mehreen Faruqi, Federal Court finds

The One Nation leader racially vilified the Greens Senator when publishing a tweet telling her to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’, a Federal Court judge has found, saying the One Nation leader has a tendency to make ‘hateful’ statements against migrants.

Mehreen Faruqi leaving the Federal Court. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Pauline Hanson racially vilified Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi when publishing a tweet telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”, a Federal Court judge has ruled, saying the One Nation leader has a tendency to make discriminatory and “hateful” statements against migrants and people of colour.

Judge Angus Stewart on Friday ordered Senator Hanson to take down the tweet and cover Senator Faruqi’s legal bill, after finding the tweet was a “variation of an age-old racist trope” issued as part of an “angry” attack on her parliamentary colleague.

The case centred on a social media spat which erupted after the death of Queen Elizabeth II when Senator Faruqi tweeted: “I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.

Later that day Senator Hanson responded to the tweet and told Senator Faruqi to “pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan”.

Justice Stewart rejected Senator Hanson’s claims that the tweet was made to defend the monarchy and instil respect in Senator Faruqi.

Senator Pauline Hanson leaves the Federal Court.

“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. Indeed, there is nothing in Senator Hanson’s tweet that is responsive to the content of Senator Faruqi’s tweet,” he wrote in his judgment.

“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. 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.”

During trial, Senator Hanson also argued she did not tell Senator Farqui to “go back to where you came from” because of her racial characteristics.

“I said the words ‘back to Pakistan’ because that’s where she happened to be from. If she were from the UK, I would have said ‘piss off back to the UK’,” she said.

“If she were from New Zealand, I would have said ‘piss off back to New Zealand’. If she were born in Australia, I would have said ‘piss off somewhere else’ or chosen a country that I thought fit what she was saying and said ‘piss off’ there.”

But Justice Stewart said Senator Hanson’s evidence was “generally unreliable” and that she “would say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time”.

Justice Stewart also made findings that Senator Hanson “has a tendency to make negative, derogatory, discriminating or hateful statements in relation to, about or against groups of people relevantly identified as persons of colour, migrants to Australia and Muslims, and to do so because of those characteristics”.

“At the time of her tweet, she knew that Senator Faruqi was Muslim. She also knew that Pakistan is a Muslim country,” he found. “On those facts I am satisfied that a cause of Senator Hanson tweeting in the terms that she did is because Senator Faruqi is Muslim.”

Shortly after the judgment was handed down Senator Hanson announced on social media that she plans to appeal the findings.