Pauline Hanson laments end of White Australia policy and talks up daughter’s leadership potential | Pauline Hanson

In an interview with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, Pauline Hanson blamed the end of the White Australia policy for creating what she saw as the problem with immigration and said her daughter Lee Hanson was the future of One Nation.

The One Nation leader, who is visiting Britain for a series of conferences and a holiday with billionaire philanthropist Gina Rinehart, repeated false claims about the spread of sharia law and accused Muslim communities, without evidence, of distorting the national disability insurance scheme in an episode of Robinson’s podcast on Friday.

“A lot of people, many of whom come from Muslim areas, are defrauding the system and participating in this scheme,” he said of the national disability insurance scheme.

“But there are a lot of Australians, there are other Australians too, so I won’t just single them out, but it’s well known that there are a lot of people on the Muslim streets who are involved in the NDIS scheme.”

Health minister Mark Butler rejected Hanson’s claims about Muslim communities and the NDIS on Friday morning.

“I don’t know where Ms Hanson got her figures from but they were never given to me as disability minister and NDIS minister,” he told ABC radio.

“I would hate to respond to a podcast between Ms. Hanson and this convicted felon who has been publicly rejected by many prominent figures on the right.”

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has a string of criminal convictions and has become too politically toxic to mainstream figures in Britain, including Reform leader Nigel Farage.

Hanson used the hour-long interview to accuse the Whitlam government of changing Australia’s immigration mix in the 1970s. As Prime Minister Gough Whitlam eliminated the last vestiges of the racist White Australia policy, Holt’s government began to dismantle the post-federation policy that favored white immigrants in the early 1960s.

Robinson singled out specific immigrant groups in the podcast, asking Hanson, “The changing face of Australia because of Islamic immigration… how did you end up with Pakistanis and Somalis and all these African issues… how did that happen?” he asked.

Hanson replied: “They opened up and abolished the White Australia policy, then they started bringing in different immigrants.

“After the Second World War, a lot of people appeared, Italians, Germans, Poles and these people, but they integrated into the system.

“A lot of them couldn’t speak English, but they learned to speak English. They had to study. It’s these people who came and really assimilated.”

He also said that his daughter is the future of his party and has the necessary infrastructure and experience to make a career in politics.

Guardian Australia revealed in February that One Nation had hired Tasmania-based Lee Hanson in a $180,000-a-year taxpayer-funded role as senior adviser to the New South Wales senator.

He is leading the party’s expansion in Tasmania and is also the party’s national executive director. The younger Hanson nearly won the Senate seat in the 2025 election.

Hanson told Robinson that her daughter was a “smart kid.”

“It’s great to work with him. He’s the future. He has a softer approach.”

When asked if she could replace her mother as leader, Hanson said it was a position to be won.

“He has potential, but I don’t believe in nepotism. And he needs to prove himself. Not only to me, but also to the other members, the public and things like that.

“This is something he has to earn.”‘

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Hanson’s interview with Robinson crossed the line. “This is appalling and frankly un-Australian,” he said.

“Going abroad and hanging out with a criminal thug… laughing at his program about multiculturalism in Australia, meaning our communities, Australian citizens and the people who make this country great, Pauline Hanson is the most un-Australian politician in parliament and should go home, face the music and apologise.”

Hanson’s visit to the UK will include a weekend address at the Conservative Political Action Conference in London, where Farage and former British prime minister Liz Truss will also attend.

Hanson’s lead counsel, James Ashby, claimed his meeting with Robinson was organized as part of an episode of the current affairs program Spotlight, which will be broadcast by Channel Seven this Sunday.

Seven has been contacted for comment.

Former Today presenter Karl Stefanovic was axed from the Nine network after hosting Robinson on his podcast last month.