{"id":21903,"date":"2026-05-31T15:50:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/21903\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:50:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:50:32","slug":"pauline-hanson-skipping-senate-estimates-makes-claim-for-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/21903\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson skipping senate estimates, makes claim for PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has come under fire over her parliamentary attendance after declaring she had the ability to be prime minister <\/a>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.<\/p>\n

After she skipped Canberra last week to prioritise meeting voters\u00a0in regional Queensland, which included spending her birthday\u00a0with billionaire Clive Palmer, parliamentary library analysis showed Senator Hanson attended at least one Senate estimates \u00adhearing <\/a>on just 28 out of 239 days they were held since she returned to parliament in 2016.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> \u00ad\u201cbastards\u201d for criticising her attendance record.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese bastards, all they are\u00a0worried about is trying to kick\u00a0me in the guts to make out that I\u2019m not doing anything,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

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. \u201cDo I want to be prime minister? Well, I tell you what, I won\u2019t knock the job because I believe that I have the ability to do it,\u201d she said, amid a surge in support for her party since last year\u2019s federal election. <\/p>\n

With Labor backing an above-inflation increase to the minium wage<\/a>, Senator Hanson said businesses were struggling to keep up with rising costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just say \u2018We\u2019re going to give you a rise\u2019 because you \u00adreally need to understand, 50,000 small businesses have gone insolvent because they can\u2019t pay their bills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The parliamentary library\u2019s analysis of Senator Hanson\u2019s record showed she had missed an entire Senate estimates period \u2013 usually lasting a fortnight \u2013 70 per cent of the time since 2016.<\/p>\n

Senator Hanson has also missed 12 regular parliamentary sitting days since the 2025 election, including seven days suspended for wearing a burka <\/a>in parliament and five days without approval being granted from the Senate.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Queenslander has also \u00adattended less than one-third of \u00addivisions in the Senate since the election, which are typically used to vote on procedural motions or legislation.<\/p>\n

Labor cabinet minister Murray Watt said Senator Hanson needed to explain to \u201chardworking Australians why she doesn\u2019t think she needs to turn up to work while drawing a taxpayer-funded salary of over $200,000 a year\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that she would rather be partying with billionaires than fighting for working people,\u201d Senator Watt said.<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Garth Hamilton, who represents the regional Queensland seat of Groom, said One Nation was not pulling its weight to fight Labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Nation talks about working together but we\u2019re the ones doing all the work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need all hands on deck to fight Labor. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow is not the time to focus on your career progression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nationals leader Matt Canavan said Senate estimates was an important forum to probe government policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be a senator at estimates is one of the greatest contributions you can make. Often the votes you have on the floor don\u2019t count \u2026 but to have the power to directly combat the woke agenda of our bureaucracy makes huge advances with the public. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think it is a core part of our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Hanson \u2013 who will attend two days of Senate estimates this week because of her interest in the National Disability Insurance Scheme \u2013 said she was \u201cangry\u201d at criticism of her attendance record by the two major parties and she was \u201cnot answerable to them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is all politics,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201chave been told not to answer the questions\u201d. <\/p>\n

Last week, she travelled to Goomeri, Murgon and Noosa Heads in the Coalition-held electorate of Wide Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (the bureaucrats) take everything on notice, and guess what, you never hear back from them whatsoever,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been briefed on how to answer the politicians there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve done this last four days has really connected me with the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting the answers from the Australian people, directly from them, and that\u2019s what a lot of these politicians don\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Hanson said she typically attended regular sitting days in the Senate and was \u201creally \u00adsurprised\u201d her absences were relatively high.<\/p>\n

But she defended not attending many divisions, arguing that many of them were pointless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll say my voting record was down because they are things that I don\u2019t need to be there for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not legislation that\u2019s going\u00a0to change the country, it\u2019s all parliamentary procedures and that type of thing, or calling for documentation, so it\u2019s not \u00adimportant. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will be there when I think it\u2019s necessary for me or of any \u00adimportance to the Australian people.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read related topics:One Nation<\/a>Pauline Hanson<\/a>\"Greg<\/a>Greg Brown<\/a>Chief political correspondent<\/p>\n

Greg Brown is The Australian’s chief political reporter. He was previously Canberra bureau chief and before that spent five years covering federal politics for The Australian, where he built a reputation as a newsbreaker consistently setting the national agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has come under fire over her parliamentary attendance after declaring she had the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[124,22,23,133,5402,20807,21,2184,20803,20805,20809,20800,6446,20810,20798,1949,14612,8463,20814,2700,20802,13156,9507,20806,119,135,120,1955,3217,20804,20811,1926,20801,212,20799,20812,20808,17813,1668,3448,117,20813],"class_list":["post-21903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-capital-territory","tag-australian-people","tag-austrlia","tag-canberra","tag-career-progression","tag-censure-motion","tag-clive-palmer","tag-dodging-duties","tag-escape-clause","tag-estimates-hearings","tag-estimates-period","tag-federal-election","tag-government-policy","tag-greg-brown","tag-labor-cabinet-minister","tag-matt-canavan","tag-minium-wage","tag-murray-watt","tag-nationals-leader","tag-noosa-heads","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-one-nation","tag-parliament-house","tag-parliamentary-library","tag-parliamentary-library-analysis","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-prioritise-meeting-voters","tag-queensland","tag-real-increase","tag-regular-sitting","tag-senate-chamber","tag-senate-estimates","tag-sky-news","tag-texas","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-woke-agenda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}