Senator Pauline Hanson will step into the witness box and explain to a court why an X post telling a female Muslim senator to pack her bags and go back to Pakistan was not racist.
The federal One Nation leader is facing allegations of racial discrimination in the Federal Court by NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi.
In September 2022, the Greens deputy leader wrote on social media that she could not mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II as the leader of a “racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples.”
Senator Hanson responded, saying she was appalled and disgusted with the Greens senator’s comments, telling her to “pack [her] bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”
On Monday, the One Nation boss’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC said her client had criticised the Greens deputy’s comments, rather than targeting her because of her race, colour, or ethnicity.
The response was meant to show Senator Faruqi was a hypocrite who insulted the Queen and the British Commonwealth, but who still took advantage of the benefits that living in Australia brought, the Federal Court was told.
Under cross-examination, Senator Hanson is expected to be questioned over the Twitter post as well as an alleged decades-long tendency of making comments about minorities.
The court will also hear expert evidence from Professors Yin Paradies and Kate Reynolds who will discuss the harm of racism and the history of the phrase, “Go back to where you came from.”
