Pauline Hanson has been slammed by equality advocates for her divisive statements during her Press Club address today.
Senator Hanson, the leader of One Nation, addressed the National Press Club in Canberra in a wide-ranging speech that tackled what she sees as wrong in Australia.
The firebrand Queenslander declared Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society” during her inflammatory address, where she also pledged to axe SBS and overhaul the ABC.
At one point a banner dropped behind her in protest, informing Australians that she had pocketed a $100,000 pay rise while opposing a wage increase for 2.8 million Australian workers.
This protest was quickly claimed by progressive group GetUp, whose CEO Paul Ferris said the aim of the protest was to show the public her record of voting against the “battlers she claims to represent.”
Trans people were one of the many groups attacked by the senator in her speech, as she pledged to sack Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, claiming “almost every instrument of government [is] dedicated to a transgender ideology which seeks to redefine humanity”.
Hanson also criticised the Australian Workplace Equality Index, arguing the trans equality movement was a “militant force” and that “this whole subversive transgender insurgency must be dismantled.”
Recent polling by the Redbridge Group for Equality Australia last year found that Hanson is in a minority with her views, with 81% of Australians agreeing that trans people deserve the same rights and protections as other Australians.
A further 91% of Australians agree that trans people should have the freedom and choice to live their lives in a way that makes them happy.
“Hanson’s comments are simply shameful, and are a stark example of the extreme rhetoric being directed at trans Australians,” said Equality Australia’s legal director Heather Corkhill.
“This is a dangerous message that will only make trans and gender diverse people into greater targets for hate and violence.”
Corkhill said the comments come at a time when LGBTIQ+ people were seeing an alarming rise in targeted attacks, and these statements would only inflame that.
“This is a bald attempt to turn a small and vulnerable minority into a political scapegoat, but it flies in the face of Australian values. Nine in ten Australians believe transgender people should have the freedom and choice to live their lives in a way that makes them happy,” she said.
“Trans people make up one per cent of this country’s population and want nothing more than the chance to live true to themselves, like all of us.”
“These inflammatory remarks will not improve the lives of any Australians but risk the safety and wellbeing of a small group of people.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters also slammed the speech, saying it was nothing more than an ugly and racist distraction.
“Pauline Hanson’s incoherent hatred today offered nothing more than the same tired Islamaphobia, transphobia, racism and protection racket for fossil fuels we’ve heard from her for decades,” she said.
