Pauline Hanson compares Tommy Robinson meeting to Anthony Albanese talks with Xi Jinping

Pauline Hanson has likened her association with the convicted criminal and English far-right activist Tommy Robinson to Anthony Albanese’s meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.

She also said she would not apologise for her friendship with her benefactor, Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart, saying they were of the same era and shared a similar world-view.

Senator Hanson insisted she remained grounded after photos emerged of her holidaying with Ms Rinehart at an Italian resort and attending an exclusive Dolce & Gabbana runway show, saying MPs criticising her would have accepted the same invitation had it been extended.

But in a sign her lavish European getaway has harmed her at home, she vowed never again to attend a fashion show as it was not her scene.

She made the comments in an interview with The Nightly on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference or (CPAC-GB) conference, which she addressed to an almost empty room, reviving her complaints about Muslims and transgender issues.

The One Nation leader spoke to a room of no more than 150 people including journalists at an event organised by the former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose premiership lasted fewer days than it took for a lettuce on a livestream to wilt.

While she successfully dodged the Australian media attempting to interview her after her international debut about the controversy at home over her decision to speak to Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and has been convicted of multiple offences and jailed, Ms Hanson told The Nightly that she did not resile from the decision.

“I’m not going to back away from that. I’m not going to apologise to anyone, who I meet, who I talk to, who I associate with, and if it means that I’m going to get an understanding from someone who’s on the ground, then I’ll do it,” she said.

“He has issues but I didn’t come to discuss them, and I’ve been convicted myself and I’ve been to prison, wrongfully imprisoned. Okay, so what they say about me, the stories too, the truth isn’t told to the general public as well.

“I’m not here to defend what he’s done or hasn’t done. I was actually given a tour of his town that he grew up in. He showed me how it’s changed. There’s 45 mosques in Luton, he said, ‘you know, this is supposed to be an Islamic centre, is it terrorist, right, this is where terrorism starts here’.”

Robinson has been to jail five times over the decade between 2005 and 2025 and convicted of a range of offences including for crimes relating to physical assault, making threats, harassment, travelling on another man’s passport, mortgage fraud, defamation against a Syrian refugee, possession of drugs as well as contempt of court.

Ms Hanson spent 11 weeks in jail in 2003 after being convicted of electoral fraud which was later quashed.

When pressed on why she needed a convicted criminal to lead what she had described as a “fact-finding mission” to the UK, she likened it to the Prime Minister meeting the President of China and cited the CCP’s persecution of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province which many parliaments have ruled is a genocide.

“I’ll tell you what, Albanese meets with Jinping,” she said.

“What about his threatening to take over Taiwan.

“So we accept it because he’s the leader of a nation, because we trade with them. So it’s okay for Albanese to meet and associate with him and lay out the red carpet for him.

“Look at his human rights records. Look what he’s imposing on the rest of the world. And yet, you know, because I meet someone … I’m criticised for it. I’m not going to apologise to anyone.

“I’m not going to let the powers that be tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. That makes me different from all the other politicians because I’m not led by the polls.

“I’m led by right and wrong, and if more politicians got a backbone and stood up for what they believed in we’d have a better country.”

‘My feet are on the ground’

She said this also applied to her friendship with Gina Rinehart. Social media photos of the pair showed Ms Hanson strolling poolside while Australia’s richest-woman swam in the pool at the Grand Hotel San Pietro in Taormina.

Later, an image emerged of her attending a fashion show by Dolce & Gabbana, one of world’s most glamorous and largest fashion, alongside cast of A-listers including Jennifer Lopez and Monica Bellucci — a contrast to the political image she crafts at home as a former fish and chip shop owner.

“It’s not my scene,” she said.

When asked why she went, she said: “Because I was invited to go and to experience it. I’ve been there, I’ve experienced it. I won’t be going back again. It was stunning. It was interesting.”

“You know what, it’s kept me very grounded because, you know, each to their own what they want to do, but I know, it’s not the world that I’m in, I know where I came from.”

But she blasted her critics, saying they would have accepted the offer to Italy if it had been extended to them.

“Gina has become a friend of mine, right? We’re of the same age, we grew up in the same era. We both think very much alike — she’s a passionate, patriotic Australian. Do not forget what she’s done for the country,” she said.

“She’s done more for the country than a lot of those other billionaires. What about the Prime Minister’s mate, Twiggy Forrest? What has he done for the country?

“Have a look at what Gina’s done with the Olympians, with the rural sector with The Flying Doctors, with the veterans, $200 million for the veterans. People really need to have a look at what that woman has done and contributed back to Australia. I’m proud to be with Gina Rinehart.”

Ms Hanson says taxpayers did not pay for her holiday to Italy or her trip to the UK but would not confirm if Gina Rinehart, who has paid for multiple trips in the past and donated a $2 million small plane to her party, footed the bill.

She said any MP offered the same would have accepted.

“A lot of these people, if they were offered to go over there, would they say no, I couldn’t possibly go to that, I wouldn’t go there with Gina Rinehart? What an absolute bunch of fools they are — well, not fools, they’re absolute liars,” she said.

“They want to criticise me and have a go at me. I know I’m very grounded. Just because I might go over to a fashion parade hasn’t changed me, and these people who want to criticise me, they’re actually hypocrites. If they were given the opportunity they’d probably jump at it themselves.”

She said that Jennifer Lopez was at a nearby table but that they did not meet.

“She was at the table, opposite me. I couldn’t care less. She’s very good at what she does.”