Pauline Hanson, serial racist returns to politics - Please Explain?

December 7, 2006 - Shes back!

Pauline Hanson, the infamous politcal racist, and One Nation party founder, has announced her desire to return to politics. Hanson, who is promoting her new book - an autobiography about her controversial career - has decided to make yet another political comeback. Hanson is apparently concerned by the ease with which Muslims and "diseased" African people are able to gain Australian citizenship. Hanson was jailed in 2003 for fraud. She split from the staunch anti-immigration, nativist One Nation party and has spent the past two years penning her autobiography.

Hanson angered Australians and Asians alike with her offensive comments on immigration and Aboriginal welfare. Hanson was elected as federal MP for the Queensland seat of Oxley in 1996.

Asked about her concerns about Muslims, Ms Hanson said she was angry that Australians were no longer able to sing Christmas carols in schools or swim in public swimming pools. She blames the Muslims...
Ten years after warning Australia was being "swamped by Asians," right-wing instigator and racist provocateur, Pauline Hanson, is concerned about Australian Muslims and said Africans should be barred from the country. Hanson says she's worried that black South Africans infected with AIDS and tuberculosis are allowed into Australia. She told a drooling media pack that she was angry Australians were unable to swim in public baths because of the sensitivities of Muslims.

"They can go back where they came from," she told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

Hanson, a 52-year-old former Fish-n-Chip shop owner, said she was committed to running as an independent in Queensland at the next election, though she had not made up her mind if she would run for the lower house or Senate.

Hanson claimed that Australia is letting in many "black South Africans" with health issues. "It was on TV," she said. Hanson said she had been told by a hospital worker of an African woman with AIDS who had given birth to a child with AIDS. "There's increasing numbers of TB and they have picked up ... it could be almost one third that actually carries TB," she claimed. "What people are getting all upset about is the fact that you can't sing Christmas carols in schools because it upsets a certain amount of people," she said.

"You can't actually swim in baths because a certain amount of people want their privacy to swim in those baths." Ms Hanson said she would make an official announcement about her comeback next year. She said she would give herself plenty of time to campaign.

"OFFENSIVE URBAN MYTHS"
Greens Leader Bob Brown says Pauline Hanson's right to stand for parliament comes at huge indirect cost to Australia. "She costs Australian's dearly every time she makes racist remarks. She is a political bloodsucker on the nation, but one we will continue to host as part of the democratic ideal".

"Pauline's role in giving Australia an uglier international profile has cost us much more than any immigrant could. She should stick to reform for women prisoners, rather than abuse of people she has never met," Senator Brown said.

And Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett said Hanson's attacks on Muslims and African immigrants must be firmly rebuffed. "Once again Pauline Hanson opens her mouth and spreads offensive urban myths that bear no resemblance to reality," Senator Bartlett said.

"She brings no evidence to back up her claims. They are nothing more than hearsay. Her musings don't further debate or address community concerns, they only cause fear and division and they must be challenged." Senator Bartlett said pack-media interest in Ms Hanson's views meant her attacks must be opposed.

"While we certainly need more independent voices in the Senate, they should be balanced, constructive and effective voices," he said. "For the last nine years in the Senate, I have fought hard to promote the huge benefits cultural diversity brings to our society, and also to defend Muslims against bigotry and deliberate ignorance. If Pauline Hanson stands for parliament again, I will continue to oppose such destructive and unfair views every step of the way."

Hanson said she would campaign about the ease with which Muslims and "diseased" Africans were entering Australia. "Why shouldn't Australians know that the people we bring in to this country are there for the right reasons, and we bring them in for the right reasons? Why do we have to bring people in who are of no benefit to this country whatsoever, who are going to take away our way of life, change our laws?"

"We're bringing in people from South Africa at the moment, there's a huge amount coming into Australia, who have diseases, they've got AIDS," Hanson told AAP.
"They are of no benefit to this country whatsoever, they'll never be able to work." However, the Department of Immigration has firmly rejected Hanson's unfounded claims, saying stringent health checks were carried out on all permanent and temporary residents.

Refugee groups were also angered by Ms Hanson's comments, calling them "fanciful", damaging and hurtful to Africans who were simply trying for a life in Australia. But Hanson said politicians had "gone too far" in affording rights to minority groups. She says she is angered at the loss of Australian traditions because of Muslims.

"Look at what's happened in other countries around the world with the increase in Muslims" she said. Ms Hanson plans to release a book early next year about her political life and time in jail.

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Thr Glory Days:

In her maiden parliamentary speech the former fish and chip shop owner, who was expelled from the Liberal Party because of her strong views, warned Australia was in danger of being swamped by Asians:

On September 10, 1996, Pauline Hanson made her first speech to the House of Representatives, which instantly made headlines and television news bulletins right across Australia. She warned that Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians" due to high immigration and the policy of multiculturalism, asserting "they have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate." She also denounced the "privileges Aboriginals enjoy over other Australians", suggested the withdrawal of Australia from the United Nations, advocated the return of high-tariff protectionism and generally decried many other aspects of economic rationalism and what she perceived to be 'political correctness'.

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Remember this old gem: "Fellow Australians, if you are seeing me now, it means that I have been murdered. Do not let my passing distract you for even a moment..."

SOURCES:
The Age
The Australian
The Age
News Ltd
Herald sun
SBS
ABC
Wikipedia: Pauline_Hanson