Australian Court Upholds Ruling Against Hanson in Racism Appeal

SYDNEY-Australia’s Full Federal Court on Monday dismissed an appeal by right-wing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, upholding an earlier ruling that found she unlawfully discriminated against Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi after telling the Pakistan-born lawmaker to “piss off back to Pakistan” in a social media post.

In a unanimous decision, the three-judge bench affirmed a 2024 Federal Court ruling that Hanson’s remarks breached Australia’s racial discrimination laws and were not protected by constitutional free speech or fair-comment defences. The judgment marks another legal setback for Hanson, who has said she intends to consider an appeal to the High Court of Australia, the country’s highest judicial authority.

The case stemmed from an exchange on social media in September 2022 following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Faruqi wrote that she could not mourn “the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonized peoples.”

Hanson responded by saying that Faruqi had benefited from Australia after immigrating to the country and, if she was unhappy, should “pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”

Faruqi, who migrated from Pakistan to Australia in 1992 and became the first Muslim woman elected to any Australian parliament, subsequently filed legal action, arguing that the remarks amounted to unlawful racial discrimination.

The original Federal Court ruling found that Hanson’s comments were reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Faruqi, as well as Muslim Australians and migrants from culturally diverse backgrounds.

In its decision on Monday, the Full Federal Court rejected all grounds of Hanson’s appeal. The judges agreed with the earlier finding that the social media post conveyed an anti-Muslim and Islamophobic message and amounted to a variation of the historically racist and anti-immigrant slogan telling people to “go back to where you came from.”

The court also upheld the constitutional validity of Australia’s racial discrimination law, rejecting Hanson’s argument that the legislation infringed protected political communication. It further found that she had failed to establish a legal defence of fair comment on a matter of public interest.

Speaking outside the court in Sydney, Faruqi welcomed the ruling, saying the judgment represented justice not only for her but for people who had been subjected to similar racist remarks. She said the decision reaffirmed that hate speech should not be equated with free speech.

Hanson expressed disappointment with the outcome, arguing that Australians were increasingly unable to express personal opinions because of legal restrictions. She said her legal team would review the judgment before deciding whether to seek permission to appeal to the High Court.

Founded in 1997, Hanson’s One Nation party has long advocated tougher immigration policies and has often been regarded as a hard-right political force. While previously viewed as a fringe movement, the party has gained increased support in recent opinion polls, bringing renewed attention to debates over immigration, free speech and racial discrimination in Australia.