Pauline Hanson defends DV ‘two-way street’ comments on X
Pauline Hanson has defended her controversial comments on domestic violence and said she did not want the nation to “get things twisted”.
The One Nation leader took “exactly” what he said in the 4BC interview to Elon Musk’s X platform.
“Here’s the same thing I said about domestic violence on 4BC so don’t let the media or Labor distort the issue,” he wrote.
Senator Hanson was quickly criticized for blaming victims after saying domestic violence was a “two-way street”.
“Women can lose their cool too,” she said when asked to condemn men who commit domestic violence.
“Everyone is under a lot of pressure and it’s really hard. I don’t think we’re communicating enough with each other,” Senator Hanson told 4BC on Wednesday.
“Domestic violence is wrong, but it’s also a two-way street.”
Anti-domestic violence campaigners condemned Senator Hanson for blaming victims and ignoring the difficulty of leaving an abusive partner.
“Domestic violence is a scourge, but sometimes look, I won’t go into detail, but I’ve experienced it in my life and I just think that if you’re not in a home where you feel safe, if you feel like you don’t want to be there, you shouldn’t put up with it,” Senator Hanson said.
The time when a domestic violence victim is most likely to be killed is when she separates from an abusive partner, lawyers have warned.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam said Senator Hanson’s comments were a “complex response”.
“If we’re serious about tackling the issues of domestic violence, elder abuse, child sexual abuse and exploitation, then let’s not use blank lines like that in interviews,” he told the ABC.
“I think One Nation has long been on the record to suggest that women are not the only victims, but this ignores the fact that statistics confirm that the vast majority of victims of domestic violence are women perpetrated by men, often partners they know.
“I think society and political leaders need to be very careful about how they talk about these issues.”
Senator Duniam said politicians needed to be “realistic about helping victims and getting perpetrators to stop what they are doing”.
The comments follow allegations that two women and two girls were killed over four days in early July.
