Australian court upholds ruling against Pauline Hanson over anti-Pakistan post

An Australian court has dismissed far-right senator Pauline Hanson’s appeal against a ruling that found she racially vilified Pakistan-born lawmaker Mehreen Faruqi by telling her to leave the country and go back to Pakistan.

The appeal decision, delivered on Monday, leaves in place a 2024 Federal Court finding that Hanson’s social media post breached Australia’s racial discrimination law. The court had held that the message was reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Faruqi, as well as Muslim Australians and people of colour who had migrated to the country.

The case stemmed from an exchange in 2022 after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Faruqi, a Greens senator, had said she could not mourn the “leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised people”. Hanson responded online: “When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”

In its earlier ruling, the Federal Court described Hanson’s remarks as a “strong form of racism”. Hanson had challenged both the finding itself and the validity of the law under which it was made, but the appeal was rejected.

After Monday’s decision, Hanson said, “I was incensed by the incredible disrespect that I felt was shown to our late Queen on the day of her death by Senator Faruqi and others. I simply wanted to call that out.”

Hanson, once seen as a political outsider, has remained a prominent figure in Australian politics. Her One Nation party has risen in opinion polls this year, with Hanson campaigning on tighter immigration controls, mass deportations of “illegal migrants”, broader free speech protections, cuts in government spending and a rethink of Australia’s membership of international organisations.