One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson takes off a burqa during Senate Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo/AAP/Lukas Coch
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson takes off a burqa during Senate Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo/AAP/Lukas Coch
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson has been called many things but uncontroversial is not one of them.
The party founder and leader today carried out what may go down in history as her most outrageous stunt yet. Ms Hanson, who has ferociously campaigned against multiculturalism, took her seat during questiontime wearing a full burqa ahead of a debate on banning full-face coverings in public.
Politicians and senators were united in condemning the political stunt as religious mockery.
"To mock its religious garment is an appalling thing to do and I would ask you to reflect on what you've done," Attorney-General George Brandis told Ms Hanson before she removed the burqa and left the chamber with it in hand.
The former fish and chip shop owner and Dancing with the Stars finalist has become infamous for her political stunts and controversial remarks, some of which critics have labelled racist.
She first came to prominence after she was disendorsed as a Liberal candidate in 1996 for making racist comments about Aboriginal Australians but secured a victory in the Queensland lower house seat of Oxley anyway because she still appeared on the ballot paper.
It was during her maiden speech to Parliament in 1996 that she uttered her now infamous words: "I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians".
"They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate," Ms Hanson continued.
"Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country.
"A truly multicultural country can never be strong or united."
But that was just the beginning.
'Please explain'
Ms Hanson later appeared in an interview on 60 Minutes when reporter Tracey Curro asked her if she was xenophobic.
"Please explain?" she responded.
The remark became a popular catchphrase that is still used by Australians today. It was also appropriated by satirical character Pauline Pantsdown, played by Simon Hunt, in the song I Don't Like It, which reached the Australian Top 10 charts.
Pauline Hanson uttered her now famous catchphrase "please explain" on 60 Minutes in 1996. Photo/Supplied
'If you are seeing me now it means I've been murdered'
The following year, Ms Hanson made a video to be released to the public in the event of her assassination. She feared her stance on immigration put her life in danger after launching a new political party, One Nation, in 1997.
"Fellow Australians, if you are seeing me now it means that I have been murdered," Ms Hanson said staring down the barrel of the camera.
"Do not let my passing distract you even for a moment. For the sake of our children and our children's children, you must fight on."
The "voice from the grave" video came after Prime Minister John Howard had been advised to wear a bulletproof vest as he spoke in rural Victoria because of his tough new gun policy in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre. Ms Hanson's video was subsequently derided as a cheap political stunt.
Ms Hanson described South African migrants to Australia as having AIDS during a statement about returning to politics following a hiatus.
"We're bringing in people from South Africa at the moment. There's a huge amount coming into Australia, who have diseases; they've got AIDS," she said in 2006.
"They are of no benefit to this country whatsoever; they'll never be able to work. And what my main concern is: is the diseases that they're bringing in and yet no one is saying or doing anything about it."
Senator Pauline Hanson told the senate Australia was in "danger of being swamped by Muslims" in 2016. Photo/News Corp Australia
'We are in danger of being swamped by Muslims'
Ms Hanson heralded her political comeback in 2016 by warning Australia was at risk of being "swamped by Muslims".
It was a reference to her maiden speech to Parliament in 1996, in which she made the same claim about Asians.
The One Nation leader repeated her call for a ban on Muslim immigration and warned Australians would eventually be forced to live under sharia law if something did not change.
The Federal Government defines an Aboriginal person as someone of Aboriginal descent, who identifies as Aboriginal and is accepted as such by the community in which they live. Ms Hanson called for a debate into the definition.
'I don't have a crush on Donald Trump'
Ms Hanson was last year forced to address rumours she was fixated on US President Donald Trump.
The accusations came after she revealed she had secured tickets to the US President's inauguration and gushed that "I can see in Donald Trump a lot of me and what I stand for in Australia ... I think he's great".
She later tweeted: "Mr President my door will always be open."
Her praise was so effusive she told Karl Stefanovic on Channel 9's Today: "I swear to God I don't have a crush on Donald Trump".
