'Proud to be a houso': Anthony Albanese condemns Hanson's remarks on late mother

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised Pauline Hanson's comments about his late mother living in public housing for decades, saying he was proud of his upbringing and defending his mother as "way out of Pauline Hanson's league". 

"She made comments about me being complaining about being growing up in public housing — nothing could be further from the truth," Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

"I'm proud to be a houso and I'm proud of the community in which I grew up."

The comments follow resurfaced footage from Hanson's February appearance on a podcast, in which she mimicked Albanese crying while mocking his account of growing up in social housing in Sydney's inner west.

She argued Albanese's mother should not have remained in the same public housing property all her life.

What did Pauline Hanson say?

Appearing on The Karl Stefanovic Show in February, the One Nation leader was asked about Albanese. In response, she feigned tears while delivering a joke impression of the prime minister.

"Oh, I've actually grew up in a housing commission house. You have no idea how hard it is to grow up in a housing commission house. Oh, my God... talk about a Prime Minister," Hanson said on the podcast.

Hanson added that she had grown up on a street with housing commission homes and that the people who lived in them "had jobs, they worked".

"He said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years. Sorry, that's not on, to me," she continued.

"It should be a limited time — you've been given a hand up, move it on to the next ones coming through."

On Friday, she doubled down on those comments, telling The Australian the prime minister "complains about his housing commission upbringing".

She also questioned Albanese's account compared to Australians "being forced to live in cars and tents" because of what she called "his government's high immigration numbers".

'Way out of Pauline Hanson's league'

Albanese's mother, Maryanne, was a single mother and disability pensioner who lived with chronic rheumatoid arthritis for most of her adult life.

She died in 2002, aged 65, having spent decades in the same public housing property where Albanese also grew up.

Albanese gave an extended account of her life on Sunday morning, describing a woman who worked cleaning offices overnight to support him and who was left barely able to hold a knife and fork as her arthritis worsened.

"She was compassionate, not uncaring. She was generous, not mean. And she was kind, not nasty," Albanese said.

"She was a person of great character. She had a tough life … [but] she never complained. She never denigrated anyone.

"I grew up in a community that looked after each other. It was the opposite of being elite."

Albanese said he hadn't seen the comments when they first aired, but was "stunned" to see them when they resurfaced.

"She was a battler, and for Pauline Hanson to attack someone and their character — who died in 2002, some 24 years ago, at age just 65 — because she did have such a tough life with her health from an early age," he said.

"I am stunned at these comments, but I'll make this point: if Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me, then that's fine. But my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson's league."

Condemnation across the board

Hanson's remarks drew criticism from both sides of politics.

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie — who is currently locked in a separate, escalating dispute with Hanson after she posted a cartoon labelling him a "traitor" over his testimony in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case — said the comments were another sign she was unfit for office.

"Let's leave mums out of it," he told News24 on Sunday. "This is another indicator to the Australian people that she's not fit to be prime minister."

Trade Minister Don Farrell called the remarks "appalling".

"Anthony loves his mother … to have them attacked publicly in this way is just appalling," Farrell told News24 on Sunday.

"There's a certain bitterness in One Nation’s approach to the world that I find quite un-Australian actually."

He said that if she wanted "dignity and respect" from those in politics, an apology was necessary.

"Attacking the prime minister's mother like this is not a way to get respect and dignity from your colleagues," he said.

On Saturday, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said: "attacking a woman who has been dead for more than 20 years for living in public housing is off-limits".

"We can have a debate between politicians – leave families alone, particularly a family member who's deceased. For God's sake, there's a line — and Pauline Hanson regularly crosses the line."

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