Pauline Hanson says Australia ‘must be monocultural’ in National Press Club speech | Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson said that Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society” and warned that high immigration causes the country to lose its identity and national values.

In an incendiary speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, the One Nation leader vowed to undermine SBS and overhaul the ABC if he wins the next federal election, including imposing a license fee on metropolitan households to watch the public broadcaster. Regional services will be preserved.

In his first speech to the club after 30 years in Australian politics, Hanson said Western values ​​were under siege and governments were “too scared” to crack down on Islamic extremists, including hate preachers in Sydney mosques.

“We close our eyes,” he said. “Why? Because we’re afraid.”

The Queensland senator, who has called for a reduction in immigration to help solve the housing crisis, has sought to assume the role of a mainstream national leader better in touch with voters’ concerns than Labor and the Coalition.

“We cannot be a multicultural society,” he told the packed club.

“We are a multiracial society but we should be monocultural. Australians should live under one cultural umbrella.”

Hanson also vowed to sack Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner and said “nearly all the tools of government are [is] It is dedicated to a transgender ideology that aims to redefine humanity.”

The 51-minute speech was interrupted by a banner appearing behind the podium stating that Hanson opposes a minimum wage increase for low-wage workers.

The sign read: “I opposed a pay increase for workers while receiving a $100,000 pay increase for myself.”

Staff quickly moved to tear down the banner and Hanson later insisted small business owners were being pushed to the wall because of strict industrial relations rules.

Hanson promised to address the cost of living crisis and promised to increase spending to address homelessness.

When asked about abortion policy, Hanson said too many pregnancies were being terminated in Australia and called for the procedure to be banned after 20 weeks. Exemptions will be applied to protect the mother’s health.

After a $4 million fundraiser targeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “liar”, Hanson said the Labor leader “lied to get elected”.

“The people are sick to their teeth from these lies.”

She attacked a Guardian Australia reporter who asked about her daughter Lee Hanson, who works as a senior adviser to New South Wales One Nation senator Sean Bell, despite living and working in Tasmania.

Lee Hanson is expected to run for the Senate in the next election.

“I didn’t give him the job. He got the job on his own merits from someone who really wanted to hire him,” Hanson said.

Hanson, who has backed the renewable energy transition from the federal government and business leaders such as Andrew Forrest, said environmental rules and efforts to reduce carbon emissions should not be allowed to “constrain” the economy.

“We could never do without coal and gas,” he said.

“We must encourage investment here and provide electricity to homes and workplaces at the cheapest price in the world, as we used to do.”

Attacking Labor for the 50% capital gains tax cut and changes to negative regulation announced in last month’s federal budget, Hanson said the reforms would penalize ambitious and enthusiastic young people.

He described Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ defense of the plans as “pathetic”.

“The difference between Albanese, Chalmers and me is that I actually run a small business. They earn their income by working for the government, collecting their salaries from taxpayers.”

Hanson’s speech comes as One Nation has surged ahead of the major parties in opinion polls and overtook Albanese as the preferred prime minister in Newspoll this week.

Hanson has flirted with the idea of ​​returning to the lower house in the 2028 election and has begun reserving portfolios for the party, opposition or government.

He accused the federal civil service of incompetence and promised that the One Nation government would direct bureaucrats on how to implement policies.

Hanson accused the media of being complicit in silencing average voters and shutting down debate. He also claimed that he was a public figure and remained outside the political establishment, despite being re-elected in 2016.

He accused the media of double standards and petty attacks of hijacking the party’s reemergence and its role in speaking on behalf of disgruntled voters.

“Australians are no longer buying this nonsense from the political establishment and its media supporters,” he said.

Regarding transgender rights, he claimed, without providing any evidence, that a dangerous ideology was being “imposed” on schoolchildren, even likening transgender awareness to militant Islam.

Asked whether Australia was still at risk of Muslim immigration, as he claimed in 2016, Hanson replied: “Not if I have anything to do with it.”