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Barnaby Joyce has denied One Nation supports the White Australia policy, while backing party leader Pauline Hanson’s call for mass deportations and suggesting illegal immigrants could be targeted when they seek medical treatment.
Hanson’s approval of a far-right UK party’s deportation plan was broadcast on Seven’s Spotlight on Sunday night, as Joyce joined the cleanup of Hanson’s earlier remarks in which she said Australia’s woes began after the end of the White Australia policy.
“We don’t support the White Australia policy. Let’s get that completely clear,” Joyce told Sunrise on Monday, after Lee Hanson blamed her mother’s lack of eloquence for her being “misunderstood”.
Joyce said the winding down of the exclusionary migration policy in 1973 did not immediately cause problems, “but over time, we got a section of people who didn’t want to really assimilate with Australia”.
Hanson said in an interview with convicted criminal and far-right agitator Tommy Robinson last week that Australia’s problems with immigration began when the Whitlam government “opened up and got rid of the White Australian [sic] policy, then they started bringing in the different migrants”. Hanson defended herself on social media, saying media including this masthead made “false allegations” in reporting her comments.
During her trip, Hanson also met with leader of far-right party Restore Britain, Rupert Lowe, and discussed his plan to remove up to 2 million people from the UK. Asked during the Spotlight interview what she thought of mass deportations in Australia, Hanson said: “I love it.”
Joyce backed the call on Monday, saying “illegal immigrants” would be targeted. Asked how mass deportations would be executed, Joyce said the system was imperfect, but immigrants come into contact with the system from “time to time” such as when they go to the doctor.
“As it becomes apparent that they’re not supposed to be here ... they’ll be put on a plane and sent back to where they’re supposed to be,” he said.
Hanson was unable to explain how immigrants would be identified for deportation in the Spotlight interview. One Nation’s policy is to deport 75,000 people who have arrived illegally or overstayed their visas.
Australia’s geography and strict offshore processing regime means the country has greater control of illegal migration than the UK, which is battling unlawful crossings of the English Channel.
Hanson’s daughter addressed the White Australia remarks on Sky News on Sunday night, saying her mother had been misunderstood.
“Under no way, shape, or form did she say she wished the White Australia policy hadn’t of been changed,” she said.
“She may not be the most eloquent person in the world, but that is also a positive about her too because she’s not necessarily the polished politician that speaks the talking points as everybody else. She is authentic but, yes, it was misunderstood, that’s for sure.”
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said the One Nation leader was establishing a pattern of claiming she had been misrepresented.
“She very clearly said that the problem started after we got rid of the White Australia policy, and she also backed in mass deportation,” Plibersek said on Monday, appearing alongside Joyce on Sunrise.
“This is a woman who will say anything, and then when it is challenged, she wants to stick her head in the sand and pretend she never said it. It’s like watching a toddler do something wrong in front of you, and then turn around to you and say ‘no, no, never did, it wasn’t me’.”
Asked on Monday about Hanson’s call for mass deportations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the One Nation leader for speaking badly about Australia during her international visit.
“I find it astonishing that Pauline Hanson has travelled overseas in order to denigrate and talk down Australia,” Albanese said at a press conference in Darwin.
“What we need to do as public representatives is take our responsibility seriously. We live in the best country on earth, and we are the envy of the world for the society that we have built together … When I’m overseas, I talk Australia up,” he said.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused Hanson of avoiding scrutiny by refusing to front Australian media during her overseas trip, and called on the One Nation leader to explain her association with “convicted felon and aggressive thug”, Robinson.
“The reason we’ve got clean-up boy Barnaby out today is because Pauline Hanson is hiding. Pauline Hanson is hiding from the media, and she’s hiding from the Australian people,” Hanson-Young told reporters in Canberra.
Australian National Imams Council spokesman Bilal Rauf accused Hanson of importing divisive ideas that dehumanise minority groups.
“Rhetoric about ‘mass deportations’ is deeply disturbing and damaging to social cohesion,” Rauf said.
“It encourages suspicion, exclusion and hostility towards Australians from migrant and minority backgrounds, many of whom are citizens who have lived, worked and contributed here for generations.
“Senator Hanson’s remarks must be understood in the context of a long history of attacks on Muslims, multiculturalism and other communities. They reflect a desperate, but misguided, need for relevance and attention on her part.”
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