Mark Simpson

The Sanewashing of Hanson Is at Its Peak. This is how Trump came to power: platform the lies, skip the follow-up, let the headlines call it “proving her critics wrong.” We are all watching it happen in real time. At the National Press Club, Pauline Hanson said the following. Not one claim was challenged by the so called journalists in attendance and she continues to be unchallenged on the facts in every interview she sits. -1. Unlike the Prime Minister, I welcome scrutiny.” Hypocritical. In the same speech she announced she refuses ABC interviews, will scrap the SBS, & will make the ABC subscription-only. The event allowed 2 hours; standard format gives 25–30 mins for the address. She spoke for 50-halving the time left for questions. When Guardian journalist Sarah Martin used that remaining time to ask about her daughter's $150,000 taxpayer-funded advisor role, Hanson called her “a trashy journalist” and banned her from all future press conferences. • “Babies are aborted the day before birth.” Fabricated. Late-term abortion is highly restricted, requires medical approval, and occurs only in genuine medical emergencies. • “Interest rates are heading towards 10%.” False. RBA cash rate: 4.35%. Forecast to fall, not rise. • “There’s no gender pay gap — just women taking time off.” False. WGEA confirms the gap exists at equal hours, equal roles, regardless of career breaks. • “$30B a year on Indigenous programs.” False. Only 18% (~$5.6B) is Indigenous-specific. The rest is the Indigenous share of mainstream services every Australian uses. • Transgender people were compared to “militant Islam.” False and dangerous. ABS data: transgender and gender-diverse Australians make up 1% of the pop’n. There’s no body of research showing transgender ppl commit crime at elevated rates-in fact it shows transgender people are dramatically more likely to be victims of violence— assault, sexual violence, and homicide rates against trans people are well above general population rates in most studies (US, UK, and Aust data all show this pattern) • “23% of Australians can’t speak English.” False. That 23% speak another language at home — most are bilingual. Limited English proficiency: just 3.2%. • “The CEFC has had $200 billion.” False by a factor of six. Actual legislated capacity: $33 billion. • “I care about the homeless and hungry.” Hypocritical. In the same speech, she backed cuts to Indigenous-specific funding — despite Aboriginal homelessness running up to 10 times higher than the non-Indigenous rate. • $90 billion in cuts, no plan. ~$35 billion of it remains unaccounted for. No modelling. • “I support worker rights.” False. Voted against minimum wage increases, penalty rates, criminalising wage theft, casual conversion rights, same job same pay, and the right to disconnect. Took a $100,000 pay rise while voting against a tax break for low-paid workers • Called Australian workers “lazy.” She has attended just 12% of Senate estimates since 2016 & 53% of parliamentary votes. Paid over $200k a year • Labor have let immigration get out of control.” False. Net overseas migration has fallen every year since the post-COVID peak in 2022-23 — 538,000 → 446,000 → 306,000 in 2024-25. She also recycled a 26-year-old ABS pop’n projection as a fresh “next 50 years” forecast Said: This beautiful country belongs to all Australians born here and those who have joined us”- in her opening line; then spent the next 50 minutes demanding a monocultural society, comparing transgender Australians to militant Islam, inflating migration and language figures, denying the gender pay gap, and repeating the debunked $30 billion Indigenous funding myth. Welcomed everyone in the first sentence. Spent the rest of the speech defining most of them out — and offered no plan to fix anything she raised, only $90 billion in cuts. Not one follow-up question. No source data on a single figure in the entire speech. This is what unchallenged looks like. /2 sources