Pauline Hanson

She has been a Senator for Queensland since 2016 and was the member for Oxley from 1996 to 1998. She is named among the possible contenders in the question of who will be Prime Minister of Australia after the next federal election.

Career

Hanson was an Ipswich city councillor from 1994 to 1995 and won the House of Representatives seat of Oxley in 1996 as an independent after the Liberal Party withdrew her endorsement. She founded One Nation, led it from 1997 to 2002, led Pauline's United Australia Party from 2007 to 2010, and has led One Nation again since 2014. She was elected Senator for Queensland in 2016. Reporting in 2026 describes One Nation polling far above its past levels.

Positions

Hanson campaigns for sharply lower immigration, which she put at 130,000 a year in 2026, and opposes multiculturalism. Her 2016 Senate speech warned of Australia being swamped by Muslims, and she has called for restrictions on immigration from some Muslim-majority countries. She wore a burqa into the Senate in 2017 and has criticised Aboriginal support programs and land recognition. Reference works describe her as radical right and right-wing populist.

Controversies

In 2003 a Queensland court convicted Hanson of electoral fraud over the registration of One Nation; the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions the same year. In 2022 she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi on social media to go back to Pakistan. In 2024 the Federal Court found this breached the Racial Discrimination Act, and in July 2026 a Full Court dismissed her appeal; she said she was considering a High Court appeal.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · The Nightly · Women's Agenda

Photo: jfish92, CC0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)