After a weekend when the nation collectively has blue-balls about the lack of an election result and everyone is flapping about wondering what it all means, Pauline Hanson has come screeching back onto the political stage and sucked up all the media oxygen left by the vacuum of any concrete news.
Her news is concrete and it’s hardened my heart: she’s back in parliament ready to preach her unique brand of dangerous and wildly irresponsible ideas that have no basis in fact, science or human decency.
Does she deserve our respect as some defenders have claimed? I don’t believe she does. Respect must be earned and when someone has decades long history of peddling false, inflammatory dogma that stigmatises minority groups and incites hatred, distrust and division in the community, what possible cause do they have to demand anything other than ridicule?
It's easy to laugh at Pauline Hanson. She rarely speaks in complete sentences or with correct grammar - that's one of the things her supporters claim to love about her by the way - and she's so obviously out of her depth when quizzed by reporters. She comes across as angry, shrill and inarticulate and yet she gives voice to a vocal group of people who claim they are "victims of political correctness".
Let's be very clear about what that means. These are mostly men - the vast majority of her supporters are middle aged anglo-saxon men, around 80% according to Daily Telegraph political editor, Malcolm Farr - who are angry. They are angry that all the freedoms they used to have as the unchallenged dominant class in Australia have been diminished by other groups they used to be able to push around - figuratively and literally. They don't like it that they can't tell racist, sexist or homophobic jokes anymore. They don't like it that there is a societal understanding that women, people of other religions, races and sexual orientations deserve equal rights. They don't like it.
They see the gains made by women and minority groups as direct losses for themselves. They genuinely believe that straight white anglo men are under attack and they're tired of having to cede any of their power or re-learn the rules of engagement in society (e.g: you can't tell a racist/sexist/homophobic joke anymore and expect the room to laugh along with you).
Pauline Hanson has listened to these people - along with all the other fear-based, ignorant, misinformed, science-denying fringe groups including anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, men's rights activists, white supremacists - and she's taking their message to Canberra.
This is terrifying. Because the way people consume news these days is in sound bites and headlines. Nobody has the time or inclination to know much more than that when it comes to politics. So they'll hear Pauline Hanson talk about Australia being 'swamped by Asians Muslims' or that we need a royal commission into climate science (how about one on gravity too?) or that vaccination causes autism and it will sew seeds of doubt and fear and hatred.
Here are just some of the things she has said since the weekend:
On being skeptical about vaccination...
"I have had so many people who have brought it to my attention, that's why their kids are autistic...We haven't done the research enough, what is causing these kids to have autism, what is having all the cancer in our community, have we had enough answers into the cancer?"
Read the full interview here.
On wanting a Royal Commission into Islam...
"You have our values, culture and way of life, you don't have a full burka... You don't keep putting up mosques. You cannot deny the fact that in these mosques they have been known to preach hate towards us.
"Do you want to see terrorism on the streets here?
"I'm not preaching hate, I'm trying to have a debate and a royal inquiry into it... You're having a go at me, because I stand up for my culture, my country, and way of life."
Listen to the whole speech here.
On feeling that Asian people are swamping the country...
"Every time you go to an auction in Melbourne it is full of Asians and Australians can't even get a foot in the door to buy housing in their own country."
After Kyle Sandilands asked Hanson, "aren’t the Asians Australian as well?” Hanson replied, “Are they? There’s no identification.”
Read the full interview here.
On wanting a Royal Commission into climate change science...
"Climate change has and will continue to be used as a political agenda by politicians and self interest groups or individuals for their own gain. We cannot allow scare mongering by people such as Tim Flannery, who make outlandish statements and are not held accountable. Climate change should not be about making money for a lot of people and giving scientists money."
Read the full One Nation climate policy here.
The hatred and racism towards people who are Muslim is real. The effects of that will range from women wearing hijab being abused in the street to violence against Muslim people.
The outrageous lies she peddles about vaccination being unsafe or (FACE-PALM) linked to autism will have a direct impact on vaccination rates across the country. Vaccine-preventable diseases will increase. The lives of babies too young to be immunised will be at risk.
Pauline Hanson is not a joke. She is a real and present danger.
And while I would never advocate abuse or threats of violence against her - or anyone for any reason - that doesn't mean she automatically deserves respect. Respect must be earned and all Pauline Hanson has done so far is win some votes.
Top Comments
Mia I respect you, and I think your site has done a lot for feminism in many ways, but I don't agree with some of your ideas. I do understand why you don't respect Pauline, I agree that she has some bigoted and not well thought ideas, however as far as Islam is concerned I do think there are a number of problems with it, in terms of that most countries that are majority Muslim nations have severely oppressive laws against women. Also in the Koran it has lines such as men can beat disobedient wives. So I therefore can not respect Islam when it is sexist and homophobic. I also say the same for Christianity, it has lines in it where it says that women should be silent, it actually says women shouldn't be teachers, because they shouldn't have any authority over men. This is just one sexist example in Christianity, therefore I also do not respect Christianity.
So here is the thing I know if I said on this site that I don't respect Islam that I would be called a bigot. I also see many articles on this site by people like yourself trying to get us all to respect Islam and calling people who do not xenophobes or similar words.
You don't respect Pauline because you believe she is racist, just like I don't respect Islam because I think it is sexist.
However I do know people who are Muslims, Christians etc who are nice people and really just go along with all this stuff because that is what they have been brain washed into since birth, therefore I do not want to see any of these people vilified, but I do think that we need to take a good long hard look at the oppressiveness of these religions and call a spade a spade, these religions are sexist, they have also been responsible for a lot of oppression.
I understand Mia what you are trying to do, you don't want to see Muslims being vilified, I don't want to see that either, as I know some nice Muslims who I know would never harm another human being, but I think we can't keep sweeping every criticism of Islam under the carpet because we don't want to offend or hurt individual Muslims.
I feel the same way about Christianity, but I don't think it is on the same scale of oppression as Islam is. For instance there are some very oppressive Christian sects, but when it comes to Islam there is a lot more widespread oppression of women, therefore I am very concerned about the religious institution that is Islam.
My idea is that we support Muslims directly who come here by helping them with jobs, English lessons etc, but we also make it very clear that we aren't going to cosy up to their religious leaders or give them special exemptions for a religion that most of us don't believe in and that is actively oppressing the rights of many women worldwide. The ironic thing is that by calling everyone who disagrees with Islam a bigot, and legitimising Islam all it does is give the Islamic institutions more power to oppress women. If we said that people have freedom of religion but we aren't going to fund Islam anymore through government handouts then these Islamic institutions would have less power to commit horrific acts on women and homosexuals and all the other groups that they oppress.
Can't you see that these Islamic institutions are the modern day Nazis/Ku Klux Klan? When they segregate women and make different laws for men and women and kill women for doing things that they allow men to do? When men can marry up to 4 women, but if a woman sleeps with more than one man she could end up being hanged or stoned to death? When women can't leave the house without a male relative's permission. When women word is only worth half a man's in court. Can't you see that these types of discriminatory and oppressive practices are exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews, and what the Ku Klux Klan do to black people?
I know now what is coming, I will be told that these are just some muslims, but the reality is that you look across Islamic nations and the vast majority of them have oppressive rules against women and homosexuals, and these governments are very clear that they are doing this in the name of Islam.
Of course there are Muslims who do not agree with all of this, but the point is at the institutional level of Islam this is what is meted out to people. Yes of course some even at that level may not agree, but they still go along with it, instead of leaving. Of course some would be too frightened to leave and that is why I do not want to vilify individual Muslims because I know that many do not have a choice, but this is also why we need to stop funding the actual religious organisations.
I know you have probably been to some mosques and they all looked lovely and people were friendly etc, but this is exactly the same with any organisation that wishes to impress you. A woman I know who was horribly abused as an orphan in the Catholic church said that when it was the open day the nuns were so charming and to this day many people do not believe her when she says that Sister so and so abused her.
I plead you and beg you Mia to think about what I have written, surely it is better that we dismantle the support for this oppressive religion and surely that is one way that we can actually help those who are trapped within it and are oppressed by it, and those people are often Muslims.
Yes they should all have the right to freedom of religion, but let's not enable the oppressors of women by legitimising them and funding them.
Well said! I completely agree with you, and on some points, thank you also for the education. You have put so eloquently what I suspected was the truth about the oppression of women. We hold our own men to a higher standard in this country so why the double standards!
Thank you Sars
What? I don't think all men's rights groups or people who opt for natural health alternatives peddle hate like Hanson. You can't just lump all of them together, based on your own preferences. Men suffer terribly in our broken family law system, they are deservedly supported by men's rights groups. Many, many children have been injured by vaccinations and over-medicating, just like many, many people the world over have cured their diseases like cancer through nutrition, which is why people are increasingly rejecting big-pharma or western medical-funded research. Don't link people choosing to go outside the mainstream seeking desperate answers to people like Hanson who intentionally cause hatred and suffering for others. What a cheap shot!
The fact is that Pauline Hanson attracts these kind of people that don't believe in vacination and belong to men's rights groups. Not sure why this comes as a suprise...
Excuse me? Sorry, but what you are peddling is dangerous lies. No one has been able to cure cancer with nutrition alone. It is indeed, very very rare for any child to be injured through vaccinations. Very very rare indeed. And the term 'big-pharma' is an American term by American crackpots and their pharmaceutical system is absolutely nothing like ours. Sorry, but your views are *exactly* like Hanson's. Dangerous, ill-informed, and batsh*t cray-cray.
If you can cure cancer with nutrition then why does it still exist? If it was that simple, do you honestly think it would still be 1 in 3? And don't give me that BS that it's all a Big Pharma conspiracy. What a load of dangerous rubbish you spout.