Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club speech slammed by anti-discrimination advocates
Updated ,first published
One Nation MPs were pressured to defend their party leaders as leading human rights and anti-discrimination voices condemned Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club opening speech as dangerous.
Australian Human Rights Commission chairman Hugh de Kretser warned on Thursday that Hanson’s rhetoric, which ranged from claiming Western civilization was “under siege” to railing against the so-called “transgender rebellion”, would encourage discrimination against marginalized communities.
Kretser also said that Hanson should be removed from office due to her advocacy for trans rights, adding: “This was a speech that demoralized many Australians.”
The human rights boss told Radio National: “When we demonize parts of our society, that leads to increased racism, which creates risks to security.”
He said Hanson was calling for a return to the era of the White Australia policy; this “means that some people belong here less than others, and some people are worth less than others, and this is a concept that human rights absolutely reject”.
Hanson made his maiden speech at the Press Club to express his aim to reshape Australia after his party overtook Labor and the Coalition in the polls and was named the preferred prime minister in the election. Latest Resolve Political Monitor. He touched on a number of grievances but emphasized that immigration was the greatest threat to the nation in remarks that were rejected across the political spectrum.
Special Envoy to Counter Islamophobia Aftab Malik said Hanson confused extremists with the average Muslim and accused him of fear-mongering for political gain.
“We just need to listen to what Pauline Hanson has been saying for the last 30 years,” Malik told ABC radio. “He talked about Islam being a disease, he talked about mosques being inspected.”
The special envoy said Australia was multi-ethnic and multi-religious and Hanson’s vision of a monoculture was “dystopian”.
“I think he’s either willfully ignorant or doesn’t understand what he’s talking about.”
Net overseas migration fell slightly, with the government arguing it was managing immigration ineffectively and facing backlash.ş From the Coalition and One Nation.
The latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed net overseas migration falling from 311,000 in the year to September 2025 to 301,000 in the year to December 2025. Annual population growth fell by 0.1 percentage points.
Leading Labor member Murray Watt said Hanson had lost track of the different groups he targeted in his speech and that his plan for Australia was “a blueprint for division, chaos and cuts”.
“He’s going after workers, he’s going after women, he’s going after immigrants, he’s going after the ABC and SBS. But you can’t run a country that’s fueled solely by your grievances against different groups in our society,” Watt said during an appearance on ABC TV.
The Prime Minister said Australia’s public broadcasters played a crucial role in the country’s democracy after Hanson promised to scrap SBS and make sweeping cuts to the ABC.
“I hope all the media outlets will come out and oppose this,” he told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
I’m not someone who goes to a media conference and says I won’t answer some groups’ questions, I answer all of them and will continue to do so.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said Hanson’s banning of media organizations from press conferences was an attack on press freedom and that the One Nation leader’s personal attack on press conferences was to that effect. Guard Journalist Sarah Martin violated the reporter’s right to a safe workplace free from harassment.
“Hanson’s actions stand in stark contrast to his statements today that he welcomes media scrutiny of his party, its people and its politics,” the journalists’ union said in a statement.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the speech was filled with hate and Hanson’s promise to restrict access to abortion and cut childcare spending was “chilling”.
“One Nation is coming for women in this country. They don’t respect us. They don’t want us to have rights,” she told reporters in Canberra.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said Hanson needed to respond to discriminatory rhetoric.
“I judge people by their character and their behavior,” Taylor said at a press conference in Sydney. “If it wants to judge people based on skin color or race, One Nation needs to explain that.”
Barnaby Joyce sidestepped some of the harsh implications of Hanson’s speech and insisted One Nation was not demonizing immigrants.
Hanson said on Wednesday the country had lost its identity and values, taking aim at the 51.5 per cent of Australians who were born overseas or whose parents were born abroad.
is on ABC 7.30 On Wednesday night’s show, Joyce denied that One Nation had turned its back on that half of the population.
“We’re saying Australia needs to have the capacity to bring in an Australian culture, a culture that has guardrails, a culture that can absorb people, so we adapt,” he said.
“We are not against immigration. We are against immigration in a way that prevents people from finding homes.”
When asked whether he agreed that Australians born overseas, or Australians with parents born overseas, were destroying the country’s identity and values, Joyce said:
“I don’t know… I mean, he didn’t say they were destroying Australia’s identity and its values. He clearly said it was linked to a problem: if there’s a surplus anywhere, it’s an indication that you’re sort of not fulfilling your own destiny, that you’re relying too much on importing your future and your progress, and I don’t think that’s working.”
A New Nation MP David Farley said the speech was one Australians had been waiting for.
“It was a direct shot. It hit the targets. It was clear. It was concise and addressed some of the elephants in the room,” Farley said of the address, which became so common over time.
Farley, who was elected in a landslide victory in the Farrer by-election last month, outlined what he thinks a monocultural society would look like.
“You are Australian first and your ethnicity or faith comes second.”
While he denied that immigrants should leave part of themselves but assimilate, he said he was not bothered by people speaking a language other than English at home.
“The reality is that we are in a Christian-Jewish society with a legal structure around us.”
Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
