{"id":73594,"date":"2026-08-17T04:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73594\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:42:31","slug":"pauline-hanson-dismisses-need-to-know-foreign-leaders-as-she-focuses-on-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/73594\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson dismisses \u2018need to know\u2019 foreign leaders as she focuses on cost of living"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ms Hanson told News24 she was not yet Prime Minister or Foreign Minister and is more focused on domestic cost of living issues rather than foreign leaders.<\/p>\n

It comes after she was unable to name Indonesia\u2019s President Subianto Prabowo or Japan\u2019s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during an\u00a0exclusive interview for the News24 documentary The Fight for the Right<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Fight for the Right will be available to stream from 7pm on August 25 for News24.com.au subscribers. Become a subscriber here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Hanson has since told News24 she could remember Ms Takaichi\u2019s name but had still not looked up the Indonesian leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do remember (Sanae) Takaichi, but you know what, I still haven’t looked up who the Prime Minister (sic) of Indonesia is, because I don’t need to know,\u201d Ms Hanson said.<\/p>\n

Ms Hanson argued that Australians were unlikely to know the names either and said she was more concerned with issues affecting people at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in Australia, most of them couldn’t even tell you who the Prime Minister of Indonesia is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not the Foreign Minister, I’m not the Prime Minister, and when it comes to time that I may need to know their names, I will learn it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I know they won’t have a change of Prime Minister between now and after the next election? So let’s see what happens there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her more immediate priorities were the cost of living, housing and ensuring Australians could provide for their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to deal with the things that are important to the people of this country and that is to try and turn it around to give them a decent standard of living,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The comments follow Ms Hanson being challenged on the Fight for the Right documentary whether she would be prepared to engage with regional leaders.<\/p>\n

Asked to name Indonesia\u2019s president, Ms Hanson said: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t know his name. I can\u2019t remember his name.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Japan\u2019s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, she was similarly unable to provide the name.<\/p>\n

Ms Hanson later described the exchange as a \u201cgotcha\u201d moment and said she was \u201cfed up with these gotcha moments\u201d.<\/p>\n

The issue was also put to Agriculture Minister Julie Collins on Sunday, who named both leaders and pointed to the importance of Australia\u2019s relationships with both countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, President Prabowo of Indonesia and the Prime Minister Takaichi obviously have close relationships with Australia,\u201d Ms Collins told News24.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Agriculture Minister I certainly appreciate those relationships. We have a close relationship with Indonesia and Japan in terms of our agricultural trade, which I’m very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether Ms Hanson should be expected to know the names of the leaders, Ms Collins declined to directly criticise the One Nation leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell that’s a matter for her to have to answer\u2026 I’ll leave it to her to make her own comments about international relations,\u201d Ms Collins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m focused on my job of making sure that we get the best opportunities for Australian farmers. Our government has been focused on restoring those international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange comes as One Nation seeks to consolidate support among voters dissatisfied with the major parties.<\/p>\n

The latest News24 Pulse\/YouGov poll found Labor holding 28 per cent of the primary vote, followed by One Nation on 24 per cent and the Coalition on 22 per cent.<\/p>\n

Ms Hanson told News24 in May she believed she had the ability to be Prime Minister of Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to underestimate myself or say, ‘no, I can\u2019t do it,’ because you know, have a look at what we\u2019ve got now. That\u2019s why we\u2019re in a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Hanson added that running for a seat in the House of Representatives, rather than the Senate, was \u201cin consideration\u201d for the 2028 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in consideration by all means, it is in the mix but I’m not making a decision now… It will be based on political strategy as well,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Hanson went on to describe the Albanese government as the \u201cworst\u201d she had ever seen in her 30 years of politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ms Hanson told News24 she was not yet Prime Minister or Foreign Minister and is more focused on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,4917,21,1955,1926],"class_list":["post-73594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-auspol","tag-austrlia","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline-hanson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73594","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=73594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}