Foreigners are “interfering” in an online survey set up by a Senate committee to gauge public opinion on Pauline Hanson’s proposal to make permanent residents wait eight years before applying for Australian citizenship, the One Nation leader says.
The poll only asks for an email address, a name and a “yes” or “no” vote on Pauline Hanson’s draft legislation.
Senator Hanson said she became concerned when she saw the poll shared on foreign Facebook pages.
Pages run by foreign embassies in Australia, including Brazil’s commission in Brisbane, have also shared the link.
“I think Australians should have their say in this, not foreign interference,” Senator Hanson told Channel Seven’s Sunrise program.
“And I’ll tell these foreigners: Keep out of our politics and keep out of our laws.”
Senator Hanson shared a series of links to “evidence” of the interference on her Facebook page, which includes a page called “Hazaras in Indonesia”, referring to an ethnic minority group, urging its followers to “SAY NO TO UNFAIR CITIZENSHIP BILL.”
“I’m telling these foreigners to keep out of our politics and keep out of our laws” — @PaulineHansonOZ is calling for tougher citizenship rules and is furious that people overseas get to have a say. #auspol pic.twitter.com/AoJB2JZ33X — Sunrise (@sunriseon7) April 26, 2018
The survey closes at 5pm on Friday night and the One Nation leader urged Australian citizens to log on and vote before the deadline.
But she also said the Senate committee should “disregard” the results.
The committee’s Coalition chair, Senator Ian MacDonald, told ABC News the secretariat recommended the online poll to reduce an influx of long-form written submissions.
"In a similar bill to this one that occurred quite recently, we had over 12,000 submissions," Senator MacDonald said.
"That involves... a lot of clerical work, taking submissions, reading it, putting it online."
The committee is also accepting regular submissions, which can be sent by email, until 5pm on Friday.
The Turnbull government itself recently tried to increase the wait time for permanent residents to four years, but the bill was blocked in the Senate, mostly because of crossbench opposition to a tougher English language test for citizenship.
Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton has confirmed the government will attempt to re-introduce the legislation this year.
