Australia’s Pauline Hanson blasts media, targets ‘radical Islam’ as far-right surge gathers pace

SYDNEY, June 17 — The leader of Australia’s ascendant far-right party assailed “radical Islam” and the media on Wednesday  and vowed to pull the country out of international organisations in an address briefly interrupted by the unfurling of a protest banner.

For years a political outsider, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has surged this year to become the country’s most popular party, according to opinion polls.

The senator — long compared to US President Donald Trump or France’s Marine Le Pen — is also Australians’ favourite choice in recent polls to be prime minister at the next election, due to be held in 2028.

Addressing the country’s top political journalists at Canberra’s National Press Club, Hanson condemned them for dismissing her rise as a blip.

“Australians aren’t buying this crap from the political establishment and its media supporters anymore,” she said.

“I don’t answer to the media. I answer to the Australian people.”

She also pledged sweeping cuts to government spending — akin to Elon Musk’s DOGE in the United States — but misstated the name of the Indigenous affairs department she would scrap.

In another nod to the Trump administration, Hanson said Australia would need to re-evaluate its ties with international organisations.

“We need to look at where we are with the United Nations,” she said.

“We’ve been dictated to on too many occasions, and people want their sovereignty back.”

Hanson also pledged she would scrap aid to Australia’s Pacific Island neighbours — nearly US$1.6 billion (RM6.5 billion) in 2023, according to the Lowy Institute — if they continued to accept development help from China.

“China is a real big concern to me,” Hanson said.

The senator dismissed the Australian government’s efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions.

And she vowed to draw down the Australian state’s support for public broadcasting — telling a journalist from the taxpayer-funded SBS that “you’re going to be without a job”.

Hanson called for Australia to “dig baby dig” for energy rather than relying on its Asian partners.

Her speech was briefly interrupted by protesters unfurling a banner accusing her of opposing a pay rise for workers

Opinion polling does not suggest that One Nation would win a parliamentary majority in the next election but instead could serve a kingmaker role in a coalition of right-wing parties.

Australia’s government has acknowledged there are “legitimate concerns” about the economy and housing driving the rise in support for the far-right.

But it has dismissed One Nation’s policies — including seizing property owned by foreign residents — as divisive.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier on Wednesday said he would skip Hanson’s address but would instead be tuning in to the National Rugby League’s State of Origin game later in the day. — AFP