‘We must be monocultural’: Hanson demands end to multiculturalism, calls climate change a hoax

Pauline Hanson’s first speech at the National Press Club has outlined her plans to clamp down on Muslim migration, end multiculturalism and axe the government’s climate change department, as the One Nation leader claimed four of Australia’s closest allies were “absolute s---holes”.

Hanson began her no-apologies speech on Wednesday by identifying immigration and housing affordability as two of the most pressing issues facing the country, insisting Australia “cannot be a multicultural society”.

“We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural,” she said while attacking the assembled media for continuing to “repeat the lie that we are a racist party”.

Supported by her fellow One Nation senators Malcolm Roberts, Sean Bell and Tyron Whitten and star defector Barnaby Joyce, Hanson approached her question-and-answer session with Canberra press gallery journalists with defiance and sometimes direct hostility, saying they had been part of the problem, along with incompetent government ministers and a lazy and bloated public service.

The speech, Hanson’s first address to the press club in 30 years in politics, came as polling found primary vote support for One Nation has surged past Labor and the Coalition, and after Hanson was named preferred prime minister in the latest Resolve Political Monitor.

The speech was interrupted briefly by a stunt banner unfurled behind the leader as she spoke, planted by activist group GetUp. The press club has referred footage of the incident to the federal police and issued an apology to Hanson, who paused briefly to look at the banner before continuing on with her speech.

Asked if Australia was in danger of being swamped by Muslim migrants – as she had claimed was happening with Asian immigration during the 1990s – Hanson said, “Not if I’ve got any say in it.

“Radical Islam is my grave concern ... I think we’ve got 18,000 people on ASIO watch lists at the moment, and probably 220 very serious [cases], in a country like this? What about … what happened in Bondi, which I have expressed. We can’t keep up with the personnel to keep an eye on these people. I’m not apologising for anything, and I’ve seen too much footage on our TVs from what’s happening in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, they’re all just absolute … s-holes.”

It is not clear what the source is for Hanson’s claim about the watch list. ASIO has previously indicated it does not have a watch-list tally.

Hanson vowed to shut down multicultural broadcaster SBS and make the ABC subscription-only in capital cities. She also promised to shut down government departments including “the climate change department, the Aboriginal department” and parts of the education and health departments.

She told the club that any money saved from scrapping these services would go into consolidated revenue.

“We’re all treated as Australians, equally, on an individual needs basis, not based on race, and with that, yes, that money will go into consolidated revenue, where any Australian can get that help if they need help.”

Hanson also railed against “the hoax of global warming”, which she blamed for rising energy costs, and said she would scrap all subsidies for renewable energy projects.

On nuclear power, she said the Coalition made a mistake committing to seven power plants, and she would build them only as needed. Barnaby Joyce was a big promoter of nuclear power when he was with the Nationals.

“No more wind turbines to be put in; that will be scrapped,” Hanson said. “No more solar panels on agricultural land – gone. Put it up on your roofs. I don’t care. Coal-fired power stations, yes. We need to have that one in South Australia, one in Queensland, to deliver the power that we need. And then from there we move forward and put in a reactor. Start with one. It all comes down to if you can afford it.”

United Nations science body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said human-induced greenhouse emissions are the dominant cause of global warming, which is raising the atmospheric temperature and increasing extreme weather. Its findings are subject to more than 2000 independent scientific reviewers.

While the Coalition has scrapped its support for a net zero target, the other major parties still agree that man-made climate change is real.

Hanson said the childcare system and the industrial relations system should be completely overhauled and repeated her opposition to pay rises for workers, arguing that businesses tell her that employees are lazy and too difficult to sack.

“You need to look at the other side of the ledger. Can businesses afford and pay that? I understand there is a struggle that is happening in people being able to afford and pay their bills, but there has to be a balance,” she said.

“Industrial relations, I can assure you, needs a complete overhaul because it’s not working.”

Asked about her stance on abortion, Hanson said, “I’m not against people and circumstances, women that need to have an abortion for medical reasons, for some circumstance. I’d rather educate women to use contraceptives than to go through an abortion; too many abortions in this country, anyway”.

Asked earlier in the day if One Nation was fit to govern, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the party was “opposed to all of the cost-of-living measures that my government has put in place” and noted he had watched an interview “from the One Nation leader where she was talking about making it easier to sack people and concerned about the minimum wage increases”.

“Pauline Hanson wants Australians angry, divided and scared of our neighbours. It’s an ugly and racist distraction from her servitude of the same billionaires and corporate superprofits as the major parties.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also asked if Hanson was fit to govern when interviewed on Darwin radio station Mix 104.

“Are they fit to govern? Have they got a credible plan for the country? And we’ve got a member of One Nation we see today saying that the United States is the ‘worst terrorist organisation in the world’. I mean, seriously?”

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