Australian court rejects Pauline Hanson’s racial discrimination appeal | Issues of Discrimination

The court will uphold an earlier ruling that the information sent to Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi was illegal.

The Australian court rejected the appeal right-wing leader Pauline Hanson to overturn the racist decision by the Muslim senate.

In 2024, Hanson was found guilty of racial profiling after telling Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi to “pack your bags and go back to Pakistan”.

Anti-migrant leader One Nation Party he had said this in a social media post two years earlier, on the day Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II died, in response to Faruqi’s statement that he could not mourn “the leader of a racist empire built on the stolen lives, land and wealth of colonial people”.

In their decision on Monday, three judges of the Federal Court of Australia said that “no grounds” for appeal had been established, and added that Hanson’s comment was prohibited and not protected by ⁠⁠​​​​​​​​​​​​Free speech.

“Today, justice has been done,” Faruqi told reporters outside a court in Sydney. “Today’s victory is for every person out there who has been told to go back to where you came from.”

Hanson said he and his legal team would review the decision and plan to appeal to Australia’s final court of appeal, the High Court.

“Public debate in Australia is almost completely destroyed by laws and regulations that prevent ordinary people from expressing their opinions if it offends or upsets or ‘depresses’ a small part of our society.

The Federal Court said it agreed with the 2024 decision, which “clearly defined” Hanson’s post as containing an anti-Muslim and Islamophobic message and “being different from the anti-racist, nativist and anti-immigrant slogan ‘go back to where you came from’.”

The law was valid and legal and Hanson did not establish a defense to allow the public to comment on the public interest, it said.

“We have a 434 paragraph rejection of Pauline Hanson’s petition, proving that Pauline Hanson was racist, Islamophobic, and hateful,” Faruqi said.

“Hate speech is not free, and the Federal Court reaffirmed that today.”

Founded in 1997, One Nation was seen as a minority party but Hanson’s bravery on immigration has attracted large numbers in recent elections.

Hanson called for an end to multiculturalism in Australia, saying the country should be a “one culture” society.