Pauline Hanson: Federal Court finds One Nation leader racially vilified Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson will appeal a landmark Federal Court finding she racially vilified Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi when she told her to “piss off back to Pakistan” in a 2022 tweet.

Senator Faruqi sued Senator Hanson under racial discrimination laws over the comments that were made on X in September 2022.

In his decision, handed down on Friday, Justice Angus Stewart concluded Senator Hanson had made an “Islamophobic” and racist comment.

He described the post as an “angry personal attack” that conveyed a “strong form of racism”.

Senator Faruqi said the judgement would set “a new precedent” for how Australia views racism from now on.

Senator Hanson has been ordered to delete the post within seven days and pay Senator Faruqi’s legal costs.

In his summary delivered in court, Justice Stewart said Senator Hanson’s post “conveyed three essential and interrelated messages, all directed to Senator Faruqi’s status as being from somewhere else”.

One, he said, was that as an immigrant, Senator Faruqi — an Australian citizen who immigrated from Pakistan in 1992 — “took” advantage of Australia, “yet has the hypocrisy to be critical”.

“Not only is that the message that was conveyed, but it is also the message that Senator Hanson says that she meant to convey,” Justice Stewart found.

“It is a message that Senator Faruqi is, as an immigrant, a second-class citizen, and that she should be grateful for what she has and keep quiet. It is othering and exclusionary”.

The second message was that in saying “piss off back to Pakistan”, Senator Hanson had accepted that was a variant of the slogan “go back to where you came from”.

Justice Stewart said that slogan was a “racist trope with a long history”.

He said the tweet had ultimately carried a message “targeting immigrants and people of colour”, but had been targeted at Senator Faruqi.

“The tweet... is Islamophobic,” he said.

Writing on X on Friday, Hanson claimed the finding impinged “upon freedom of political expression” and vowed to appeal the judgment.

“Given the importance of this matter, Senator Hanson has instructed her lawyers to prepare and lodge appeal documents. She will not make further comment as the matter is before the Court,” she wrote on X

Senator Hanson’s comments came in response to a tweet Senator Faruqi had written on the day Queen Elizabeth II died, saying she would not mourn the passing of the leader of a “racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.

Senator Hanson’s claim that she did not know Senator Faruqi was a Muslim when she sent the tweet was rejected by the court, as was her argument that she had merely engaged in political discourse in pointing out her opponent’s “hypocrisy”.

In a statement, Senator Faruqi said the court’s finding was a “win for every person who has been told to go back where they came from”.

“This ruling draws a line in the sand that hate speech is not free speech, and that people who racially target marginalised communities cannot get away with it scot-free,” she said.

“Today’s landmark judgement is historic and groundbreaking, and sets a new precedent for how racism will be viewed in this country from now. It’s a warning for those like Pauline Hanson.

“It’s about time Senator Hanson faced consequences for the racism she’s been piling on Muslims, people of colour and First Nations people for more than 30 years.”

A “disappointed” Senator Hanson has instructed her lawyers to “prepare and lodge appeal documents”, a statement shared to X said.

“The outcome demonstrates the inappropriately broad application of section 18C, particularly in so far as it impinges upon freedom of political expression,” the statement said.