One Nation leader Pauline Hanson denies a rift is growing between herself and MP Barnaby Joyce, insisting they “get on so well together” despite Mr Joyce spending much of the week defending her controversial meetings and statements while on a “fact-finding” mission in Europe.
Senator Hanson has become embroiled in a roll of headline-grabbing scandals since landing in the UK earlier this month, from her controversial comments on the end of the White Australia policy on a podcast with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson to being spotted at an Italian resort with Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart.
Senator Malcolm Roberts, One Nation’s second-longest serving parliamentarian, has also drawn fire for an unearthed interview with American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his past support for conspiracy theories with anti-Semitic roots.
But after a week of repeatedly distancing himself from Senator Roberts’ remarks while justifying his boss meeting a campaigner with ties to Russian government propagandists, Senator Hanson insisted Mr Joyce was “having the time of his life”.
“He feels now he’s doing something for his country,” Senator Hanson said in a social media video posted at the weekend.
“He was shut down beforehand.”
She went on to say Mr Joyce “paid me the greatest compliment the other day”.
“When he rang me a couple of days ago he said: ‘You are the best leader I have ever worked with in any political party,’” she said.
“We understand each other. We don’t have an ego problem.”
Mr Joyce took a similar line when quizzed on Friday.
“Pauline’s doing a great job as the leader,” he told Nine’s Today.
“We’re good mates, we talk all the time and I find it a very easy, constructive relationship to be in as far as politics goes, to be quite frank.”
Mr Joyce earlier in the week sought to justify Senator Hanson’s meeting with Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, by likening it to speaking with World War II-era Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon has a string of convictions ranging from assault to stalking.
British authorities have also investigated him for his ties to Russian state media and travels to Moscow.
Mr Joyce said he did not “support so much of what Tommy Robinson does” but that “it’s incredibly important that we understand the social dynamic and how that came about”.
“Tommy Robinson only exists because of the fracturous nature of where England has arrived at, and to deny that is to deny the facts,” he told ABC’s Radio National.
One of those issues was “a change in many areas towards the Islamisation of the communities”, he said, adding that it “has brought real friction” and fuelled “the rise of … Tommy Robinson”.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon first became involved in politics in the mid-2000s as a member of the British National Party – a fascist party with no elected representatives at any level of government.
He rose to prominence early last decade after co-founding the English Defence League and staging anti-Islam street protests across the UK.
He has in recent years rebranded himself as an independent media figure and is associated with several alt-right outlets and activist groups.
Mr Joyce said it was important to acknowledge that Mr Yaxley-Lennon has a “massive following” and “make sure we don’t replicate the social disharmony that has brought that about”.
“We want to clearly understand the social dynamics of how that came about,” he said, likening Mr Yaxley-Lennon to Mussolini.
“I find … everything about Mussolini repugnant, but if I had the opportunity to talk to him, I would to find out exactly what was going on in (his) head.”
Immigrants ‘destroying’ Australia
Mr Joyce’s characterisation of Senator Hanson’s engagement with Mr Yaxley-Lennon seemed at odds with their interview published on Friday.
During the conversation Mr Yaxley-Lennon again praised Senator Hanson as a figure he had “looked up to for years”.
As they talked through migration, the anti-Islam campaigner asked how Australia had “Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems with violent Africans?”
“I’ve seen some crazy videos coming out of Australia,” he said.
“How has that happened when you have such a strong immigration policy?”
Senator Hanson said it “started” when former prime minister Gough Whitlam “opened up and got rid of the White Australia policy”.
“Then they started bringing in different migrants,” she said.
The White Australia policy, embedded in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, was a series of race-based laws restricting non-European immigration to preserve a white and largely British society.
The policy was gradually dismantled until former prime minister Gough Whitlam fully abolished it with bipartisan support in 1973.
Since her interview with Mr Yaxley-Lennon, Senator Hanson has rejected “false allegations” that she was advocating for the policy.
She said she had been “strong on immigration” and “bringing the right people in the country in a measured way”, and that her comments were targeting those who did not want to, or could not, assimilate.
“Do I want people from certain countries that want to wear the burqa? No,” she said.
“What about those marrying their cousins? No. Sharia law? No. Child marriages? No.”
That video was posted on social media just moments before she told a black-tie conservative conference dinner in London that immigrants were “destroying” Australia like they had the UK.
“What I find is happening around the world is that leaders are not doing their best to protect our nations, and are being controlled by international interests, and we are not the countries that we once were,” she told the room.
“I see in Australia the problems that you have in Britain. I see immigration is destroying our country as it has destroyed yours.”
That view was largely informed by a tour she took of Luton – a town just northwest of London on the front lines of multicultural friction in the UK.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon was her guide.
During her dinner speech, first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, Senator Hanson also claimed that both white Australians and their British counterparts were being “told that we must be ashamed of our past – that we are white privileged”.
“We have been told that we must forego a national identity, and embrace others into our nation,” she said.
“I have always welcomed people to Australia, a country built by the migrants that came there for a better way of life.
“And as I said at citizenship ceremonies: ‘I welcome you as long as you give our country your undivided loyalty.
“‘But if you don’t, I’ll be the first one to take you to the airport, put you on plane, and wave you goodbye.’”
‘Un-Australian’
Both Labor and the opposition have condemned Senator Hanson’s comments on the White Australia policy.
On Sunday Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton, whose Western Sydney seat encompasses the multicultural melting pot of Parramatta, branded the comments “incredibly divisive”.
“Australia is a multicultural country,” he told Sky News.
“Waves of migrants have added a huge amount to our country and I just think it’s incredibly divisive to be saying that some groups should be here and suggest that other groups shouldn’t be here.”
He added that the thinking did not “take us anywhere as a nation”.
“It doesn’t address any of the real challenges that we have in this country,” Mr Charlton said.
“It’s not building new homes. It’s not helping people with the cost of living. It’s not reforming our tax system.”
Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume echoed her political opponent, calling Senator Hanson’s comments “un-Australian”.
“I think that they were unnecessary, they were divisive, they were inflammatory, and they were totally un-Australian, ” she said, also speaking to Sky.
“We have a proud history of multiculturalism. We’re a great migrant nation.”
However, she added that the Coalition did “agree that migration in the last four years has run out of control”.
“The numbers have been too high,” Senator Hume said.
“If we’re going to have the prosperous and progressive society that we have always wanted, that we’ve always enjoyed in Australia, we need to make sure that we have a migration program that’s delivering for our country, that’s driving productivity, not taking away from it.
“But restoring a white Australia policy is not part of that.”
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