Photo credit: the Guardian
One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has railed against Muslims, miigrants and COVID-19 vaccines in a controversial podcast with a British far-right activist.
Daily Mail reports that in the nearly hour-long conversation with Tommy Robinsoon, published by him on Friday, Senator Hanson accused people from “Muslim areas” of ripping off the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
She also reflected on her time in prison, her two stunts wearing a burqa in parliament, and her hardline immigration policy.
Senator Hanson travelled to the UK earlier in July where she conducted the talk with Robinson, who has a history of convictions for crimes including assault and fraud.
The senator said her daughter, Lee, could eventually lead One Nation but had to prove herself to party members and the public.
“She’s got potential, but I don’t believe in nepotism,” Senator Hanson said.
The firebrand politician said her daughter, who unsuccessfully ran for One Nation in the 2025 election, had a “softer approach”.
She has previously expressed her opposition to pandemic-era vaccine mandates and told Robinson the government should “get out of telling people how to run their lives”.
“They did that exactly with COVID, telling everyone to have the bloody shot,” she said.
“I didn’t get it. I told everyone, don’t put that sh*t in your body.”
Rapidly developed vaccines are widely credited by public health experts with saving millions of lives during the pandemic, while about a dozen deaths in Australia have been linked to the immunization.
She said a vaccine should be tested for “at least 10, maybe 18 years” before being rolled out.
“What they told me, it terrified me, and that’s why I said don’t do it,” she said.
Asked how Australia had ended up with “Pakistani, Somalis, all of these African problems with violent Africans,” Senator Hanson said it started with the end of the White Australian Policy.
The postwar flood of immigrants was different to today’s situation because the new 800,000 people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme were from “Muslim areas”, but added there were many other Australians on the program too.
“A lot of them are ripping the system off …. a lot of the Muslim areas, and they’re getting on the scheme, but there’s a lot of Aussies too,” she said.
The Health and NDIS Minister said he was loath to respond to the podcast because Robinson was a convicted criminal who’d been disowned by leading figures on the right, but added he’d never seen a breakdown in nationality or religious background of NDIS participants.
