One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has come under fire over her parliamentary attendance after declaring she had the ability to be prime minister and was unafraid to oppose a real increase to the minimum wage, with the Queenslander being absent from 88 per cent of Senate estimate hearing days over the past decade.
After she skipped Canberra last week to prioritise meeting voters in regional Queensland, which included spending her birthday with billionaire Clive Palmer, parliamentary library analysis showed Senator Hanson attended at least one Senate estimates hearing on just 28 out of 239 days they were held since she returned to parliament in 2016.
Senator Hanson told The Australian she did not want to regularly attend Senate estimates hearings because bureaucrats do not answer her questions, labelling Coalition and Labor MPs “bastards” for criticising her attendance record.
“These bastards, all they are worried about is trying to kick me in the guts to make out that I’m not doing anything,” she said.
Earlier on Sky News, Senator Hanson said she had the capacity to become prime minister and was open to running in a lower house seat at the next election. “Do I want to be prime minister? Well, I tell you what, I won’t knock the job because I believe that I have the ability to do it,” she said, amid a surge in support for her party since last year’s federal election.
With Labor backing an above-inflation increase to the minium wage, Senator Hanson said businesses were struggling to keep up with rising costs.
“You can’t just say ‘We’re going to give you a rise’ because you really need to understand, 50,000 small businesses have gone insolvent because they can’t pay their bills,” she said.
The parliamentary library’s analysis of Senator Hanson’s record showed she had missed an entire Senate estimates period – usually lasting a fortnight – 70 per cent of the time since 2016.
Senator Hanson has also missed 12 regular parliamentary sitting days since the 2025 election, including seven days suspended for wearing a burka in parliament and five days without approval being granted from the Senate.
Her unapproved leave days are the equal highest in the Senate along with Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie, with one reason being she chose to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas instead of being in Canberra in the last week of March.
The Queenslander has also attended less than one-third of divisions in the Senate since the election, which are typically used to vote on procedural motions or legislation.
Labor cabinet minister Murray Watt said Senator Hanson needed to explain to “hardworking Australians why she doesn’t think she needs to turn up to work while drawing a taxpayer-funded salary of over $200,000 a year”.
“It shows that she would rather be partying with billionaires than fighting for working people,” Senator Watt said.
Liberal MP Garth Hamilton, who represents the regional Queensland seat of Groom, said One Nation was not pulling its weight to fight Labor.
“One Nation talks about working together but we’re the ones doing all the work,” he said.
“We need all hands on deck to fight Labor.
“Now is not the time to focus on your career progression.”
Nationals leader Matt Canavan said Senate estimates was an important forum to probe government policy.
“To be a senator at estimates is one of the greatest contributions you can make. Often the votes you have on the floor don’t count … but to have the power to directly combat the woke agenda of our bureaucracy makes huge advances with the public.
“So I think it is a core part of our job.”
Senator Hanson – who will attend two days of Senate estimates this week because of her interest in the National Disability Insurance Scheme – said she was “angry” at criticism of her attendance record by the two major parties and she was “not answerable to them”.
“It is all politics,” she said. “That’s why the people are coming to me because they know that I really do care and I do everything in my power to help them.”
Senator Hanson said she was able to represent Queensland better by travelling around the state and listening to the concerns of voters rather than be in Canberra dealing with bureaucrats who “have been told not to answer the questions”.
Last week, she travelled to Goomeri, Murgon and Noosa Heads in the Coalition-held electorate of Wide Bay.
“They (the bureaucrats) take everything on notice, and guess what, you never hear back from them whatsoever,” she said.
“They’ve been briefed on how to answer the politicians there.
“What I’ve done this last four days has really connected me with the people.
“I’m getting the answers from the Australian people, directly from them, and that’s what a lot of these politicians don’t do.”
Senator Hanson said she typically attended regular sitting days in the Senate and was “really surprised” her absences were relatively high.
But she defended not attending many divisions, arguing that many of them were pointless.
“They’ll say my voting record was down because they are things that I don’t need to be there for,” she said.
“It’s not legislation that’s going to change the country, it’s all parliamentary procedures and that type of thing, or calling for documentation, so it’s not important.
“I will be there when I think it’s necessary for me or of any importance to the Australian people.”
Read related topics:One NationPauline Hanson
Greg BrownChief political correspondent