Australian populist leader Pauline Hanson has been confirmed by a federal court to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act. The decision, upheld on Monday, follows a 2024 ruling that her 2022 tweet telling Senator Mehreen Faruqi to "go back to Pakistan" was an anti‑Muslim, racially harassing personal attack.
Hanson had argued that political communication is shielded from the law, but Justice Melissa Perry rejected the appeal. The court held that the tweet was likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a group based on their national or ethnic origin.
"Today's win is for every single person who has been made to feel that their belonging in this country is conditional," Faruqi said after the hearing. "Hate speech is not free speech," she added, a statement that echoed her earlier condemnation of a “racist empire built on stolen lives.”
On the day that Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, Faruqi posted condolences, but also denounced the monarchy as a symbol of colonial racism. Her reply to the tweet was lethal to the argument, according to Judge Angus Stewart, who ordered Hanson to delete the tweet and pay Faruqi’s legal costs.
The case emphasises that Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act protects all citizens from targeted harassment, including anti‑Muslim slurs. Hanson said she would review the decision and was considering an appeal in the High Court.
Hanson’s history of advocating a “Muslim ban” and her recent interview with far‑right activist Tommy Robinson, in which she linked the decline of the “White Australia” policy to the influx of Muslims, further underscore the gravity of her comments.
For the Australian public, the ruling sets a clear precedent: hate speech, even when cloaked as political critique, is not beyond the reach of the law.
