Anti-immigration protests, support for the One Nation party, and a burqa-clad Senator, Pauline Hanson, in the Senate – all these indicate the rise of populist politics in Australia. In 2017, the Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson appeared in the Senate wearing a burqa in an attempt to ban it. She is popular for instigating divisive and exclusionary politics based on nationalism, anti-Muslim statements, and discrimination towards Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. Recently, she pulled the same political stunt to ban the burqa (and niqab or face covering). This act protested the rejection of her bill to ban the burqa. She walked into the Senate with a pompous, confident air that only the One Nation party leader knows. The Senate was suspended and later resumed without Senator Pauline Hanson. Other Senate members called the act disgraceful and racist. The question is, how does the burqa affect Australia’s national security or sense of civil society?
Critics may agree that Hanson’s sensational theatrics are why those in Australia never forget her. It is concerning how confidently Hanson weaponises and fuels over discrimination and mockery against Muslims when hate crimes and Islamophobia continue being a lived reality. Pauline Hanson does not miss an opportunity to practice exclusionary politics, which has become her brand.
Over the years, she has made discriminatory and vilifying remarks towards multiple communities. With the contemporary shift to right-wing radicalism across countries, Hanson may strengthen her ‘us against them’ approach to alienate, marginalise, and reject any opposition with ideas that do not speak to One Nation. White Australia Policy is not just a remnant of a racist Australia that stopped ‘alien-coloured immigration’, but a reminder of what harmful rhetoric and exclusionary narratives can do. Lest we forget, her speech in 1996 claimed, ‘I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians’. Such narratives otherise entire communities and invite problematic notions of Australian exceptionalism that denigrate differences as threatening and not as representing diversity.
On another occasion, Senator Hanson told Senator Mehreen Faruqi to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’ when she called Queen Elizabeth II the leader of a racist empire after her death. More recently, she demanded that migrants should have ‘undivided loyalty’ to Australia. Without that, she would put them back on a plane. One wonders whether she will do the same with non-migrant Australians who sideline undivided loyalty. Where does their plane take them back to?
Australia in 2025 is divided along ideological schisms, fuelled by dangerous rhetoric spun by conservative media and politicians that ‘the others’, namely West Asian and Muslim communities, are gravely endangering Australia’s alleged beloved democratic way of life. The economic and psychosocial impacts of COVID created a fertile space to foment racist ideas, with lockdowns granting unfettered access to an echo chamber for far-right activists and politicians like Pauline Hanson to spread the ideologies to a new audience, while reminding her loyal supporters of her perceived wisdom.
The rise of Pauline Hanson’s right-wing politics, designed around spreading Islamophobia, was bolstered after the outbreak of genocidal war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Although not educated in political science or foreign affairs, this former fish and chip shop owner from Ipswich in Queensland, has always capitalised on the fears of Australians whose main source of news is the mainstream media, namely Sky News. This Murdoch-owned media giant is renowned for platforming controversial voices while disregarding the consequences.
Reflecting the power of firebrand politicians and right-wing media to influence the public perception of culturally diverse communities, a report released in September 2025 by Australia’s envoy for Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, found that the rate of physical attacks against Muslim people grew by 150 per cent, with a staggering 250 per cent increase in online abuse. Pauline Hanson shrewdly noted the public’s growing anger, just as she had after asylum seekers were targeted by the Howard government following the arrivals of vessels carrying asylum seekers, SIEV X, and Tampa. In August and October 2001, respectively, the Australian nation was swept up in a wave of fear that others would take our jobs, increase house prices, and destroy the social fabric. Pauline Hanson embraced the rising Islamophobia, biding her time until her political comeback and second coming of her infamous burqa stunt.
One November day, the Meta social media app showed a video clip captioned, ‘Australian senator appears in Parliament wearing a burqa’. One would sadly and angrily presume that in Australia, wearing the burka was becoming objectionable; however, one began to hope that it would not emulate France.
Unfortunately, outrageously and shamelessly, since 1997, when Pauline made news for her despicable racist comments and campaigns against immigrants, she has again resorted to the same politics with the burqa ban demand. She might keep frying her fishy politics until her chips are down.
Burqa Theatrics and Populist Politics in Australia
Anti-immigration protests, support for the One Nation party, and a burqa-clad Senator, Pauline Hanson, in the Senate – all these indicate the rise of populist politics in Australia. In 2017, the Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson appeared in the Senate wearing a burqa in an attempt to ban it. She is popular for instigating divisive and exclusionary politics based on nationalism, anti-Muslim statements, and discrimination towards Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. Recently, she pulled the same political stunt to ban the burqa (and niqab or face covering). This act protested the rejection of her bill to ban the burqa. She walked into the Senate with a pompous, confident air that only the One Nation party leader knows. The Senate was suspended and later resumed without Senator Pauline Hanson. Other Senate members called the act disgraceful and racist. The question is, how does the burqa affect Australia’s national security or sense of civil society?
Critics may agree that Hanson’s sensational theatrics are why those in Australia never forget her. It is concerning how confidently Hanson weaponises and fuels over discrimination and mockery against Muslims when hate crimes and Islamophobia continue being a lived reality. Pauline Hanson does not miss an opportunity to practice exclusionary politics, which has become her brand.
Over the years, she has made discriminatory and vilifying remarks towards multiple communities. With the contemporary shift to right-wing radicalism across countries, Hanson may strengthen her ‘us against them’ approach to alienate, marginalise, and reject any opposition with ideas that do not speak to One Nation. White Australia Policy is not just a remnant of a racist Australia that stopped ‘alien-coloured immigration’, but a reminder of what harmful rhetoric and exclusionary narratives can do. Lest we forget, her speech in 1996 claimed, ‘I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians’. Such narratives otherise entire communities and invite problematic notions of Australian exceptionalism that denigrate differences as threatening and not as representing diversity.
On another occasion, Senator Hanson told Senator Mehreen Faruqi to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’ when she called Queen Elizabeth II the leader of a racist empire after her death. More recently, she demanded that migrants should have ‘undivided loyalty’ to Australia. Without that, she would put them back on a plane. One wonders whether she will do the same with non-migrant Australians who sideline undivided loyalty. Where does their plane take them back to?
Australia in 2025 is divided along ideological schisms, fuelled by dangerous rhetoric spun by conservative media and politicians that ‘the others’, namely West Asian and Muslim communities, are gravely endangering Australia’s alleged beloved democratic way of life. The economic and psychosocial impacts of COVID created a fertile space to foment racist ideas, with lockdowns granting unfettered access to an echo chamber for far-right activists and politicians like Pauline Hanson to spread the ideologies to a new audience, while reminding her loyal supporters of her perceived wisdom.
The rise of Pauline Hanson’s right-wing politics, designed around spreading Islamophobia, was bolstered after the outbreak of genocidal war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. Although not educated in political science or foreign affairs, this former fish and chip shop owner from Ipswich in Queensland, has always capitalised on the fears of Australians whose main source of news is the mainstream media, namely Sky News. This Murdoch-owned media giant is renowned for platforming controversial voices while disregarding the consequences.
Reflecting the power of firebrand politicians and right-wing media to influence the public perception of culturally diverse communities, a report released in September 2025 by Australia’s envoy for Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, found that the rate of physical attacks against Muslim people grew by 150 per cent, with a staggering 250 per cent increase in online abuse. Pauline Hanson shrewdly noted the public’s growing anger, just as she had after asylum seekers were targeted by the Howard government following the arrivals of vessels carrying asylum seekers, SIEV X, and Tampa. In August and October 2001, respectively, the Australian nation was swept up in a wave of fear that others would take our jobs, increase house prices, and destroy the social fabric. Pauline Hanson embraced the rising Islamophobia, biding her time until her political comeback and second coming of her infamous burqa stunt.
One November day, the Meta social media app showed a video clip captioned, ‘Australian senator appears in Parliament wearing a burqa’. One would sadly and angrily presume that in Australia, wearing the burka was becoming objectionable; however, one began to hope that it would not emulate France.
Unfortunately, outrageously and shamelessly, since 1997, when Pauline made news for her despicable racist comments and campaigns against immigrants, she has again resorted to the same politics with the burqa ban demand. She might keep frying her fishy politics until her chips are down.
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