Joyce dines with Hanson in her office after burqa stunt

3 months ago 10

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has cooked a wagyu steak for Barnaby Joyce in her office hours after she pulled a widely condemned burqa stunt.

The One Nation leader is riding high in the polls but drew fierce criticism from Labor, the Greens, the crossbench and Nationals right-winger Matt Canavan when she wore a burqa in the Senate on Monday afternoon, after a failed attempt to ban Muslim facial coverings.

Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson dine on Monday evening.

Joyce has been flirting with One Nation since at least mid-October when this masthead revealed he was in advanced discussions with the minor party, which has been condemned for many years for alleged racism towards Asians, Muslims and other minorities.

There had been speculation that Joyce would formally announce his defection to the minor party this week, the final parliamentary session of the year.

Joyce has not announced a final call on his future but met Hanson on Monday evening, posing for a photo supplied to this masthead by One Nation. The duo sat at a table next to Hanson’s desk, under a large portrait of the senator, for a dinner of wagyu steak, pasta and salad.

A photo later released on social media showed the One Nation leader cooking the steaks on a sandwich press in her office, fulfilling a promise to cook for him if he would consider defecting to her party.

Pauline Hanson cooks a steak for Barnaby Joyce on a sandwich press in her office.

Canavan, one of Joyce’s closest allies in the Nationals – he once worked as Joyce’s chief-of-staff – urged the former deputy prime minister to reconsider any move to One Nation after the burqa stunt.

Senator Lidia Thorpe reacts to Senator Pauline Hanson wearing a burqa in the Senate.

“Look before you leave, Barnaby,” Canavan, one of the most conservative Coalition MPs, said on ABC TV, before condemning Hanson for what he described as her stunt-based attention-seeking and her tendency to blow up relationships with colleagues.

“I don’t like this type of politics,” Canavan said. “This is disrespectful to Muslim Australians. I don’t support ridiculing people.”

Hanson was ultimately ejected from the Senate on Monday afternoon, forcing the suspension of the chamber as she refused to take off the burqa after Labor and the Coalition united to condemn her.

Following vociferous protests about Hanson’s stunt from independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman and Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Labor Senate leader Penny Wong asked Senate President Sue Lines to rule that Hanson’s conduct was disorderly, quoting former Liberal senator George Brandis, who rebuked the One Nation leader when she wore the garment on the Senate floor in 2017.

“All of us in this place have a great privilege and we represent in our states people of every faith ... and we should do so decently,” Wong said. “The sort of disrespect that you are engaging in now is not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate.”

Hanson’s dinner with Joyce was the second time the pair had met within three days after they spoke together at a Conservative Political Action Conference Christmas event in Brisbane on Saturday.

Joyce, 58 and twice Australia’s deputy prime minister, did not deny he was on the way to joining One Nation when asked on Monday morning, as speculation mounts that he will take over the party when Hanson, 71, eventually retires.

“I just don’t want any circus. I’m trying to wait ’til the end of sitting week,” Joyce told reporters on Monday.

Asked about Hanson’s decision to wear a burqa, Joyce told this masthead: “People are free to express themselves politically, and you are free to interpret it any way you wish.”