History repeating: the long record of Hanson's opinions on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Warning: this article includes racist language that may be offensive or distressing to some readers.

Another day, another derogatory word salad about Indigenous Australians from One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

And yet, somehow, we’re expected to be surprised or even shocked. Why? This isn’t an aberration. It’s a pattern.

For three decades, Senator Hanson has built a political career by turning Indigenous Australians into a political punching bag — questioning our history, our culture, our achievements and our place in this country.

From Mabo to native title and reconciliation to programs to address disadvantage, from questioning Indigenous identity to now questioning what our people have contributed to this country, the themes are remarkably familiar.

So why would she stop now?

Hanson has built a political brand on division and grievance, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been one of her favourite targets.

Her latest comments may be offensive, but they are hardly surprising.

Tried and tested formula

Back in September 1996, in her maiden speech, Hanson as the newly elected Independent member for Oxley (QLD) rose in House or Representatives in Parliament House. Within the first 40 seconds of getting to her feet, in her fourth sentence, she spoke about Aboriginal Australians.

“I won the seat of Oxley largely on an issue that has resulted in me being called a racist,” she said.

“That issue related to my comment that Aboriginals received more benefits than non-Aboriginals.”

Hanson decried about what she described as the various Aboriginal “taxpayer-funded industries”, from native title and reconciliation to social housing programs.

She even challenged the assumption that Aboriginal Australians are the most disadvantaged people in Australia.

Her maiden speech was the start of the familiar Hanson formula: reduce complex issues to simplistic soundbites, cast support for First Nations communities as some kind of special privilege, and then question whether disadvantage even exists in the first place.

“I have done research on benefits available only to Aboriginals and challenge anyone to tell me how Aboriginals are disadvantaged when they can obtain three and five per cent housing loans denied to non-Aboriginals,” she declared.

At the time of her speech, the 1996 Census estimated Indigenous home ownership at roughly 31 per cent, compared to a national non-Indigenous rate of 71 per cent, highlighting the crucial role the scheme played in providing housing finance access to those who generally have difficulty obtaining finance from traditional lending institutions.

In 1996, Indigenous infant mortality rates were three times higher than the national average.

School completion rates were less than half the national rate. And at birth, an Indigenous male could expect to live 14 to 18 years less than a non-Indigenous male, with an even greater life expectancy gap for Indigenous women.

Hanson’s “fellow Australians” - albeit just the Black ones - were dying up to 20 years younger than other Australians.

But apparently, they weren’t disadvantaged.

Two year later in September 1998, Hanson delivered an Indigenous Affairs policy speech in Longreach, QLD, in which she laid out her plans to dismantle Native Title, ATSIC and Abstudy (financial help to students and apprentices).

She also called to reform the Constitution by Referendum to stop the rorting of taxpayers’ money by, what she again called the “Aboriginal Industry” and now added the “Aboriginal Mafia.”

During this speech she also questioned Indigenous Australians’ connection to Country, selectively appropriating an important element of First Nations identity to bolster an argument that otherwise seeks to diminish Indigenous rights, recognition and disadvantage.

“You cannot claim more attachment to a place because your ancestors were here first ... I speak of course of the Aborigines and their much publicised right to this land because their forefathers are said to go back tens of thousands of years,” Hanson said.

“Does an Aborigine who is the same age as I am and was born here as I was, have anymore feel for the land or cherish its beauty and ruggedness more than you and I do?

“Would an Aborigine fight any harder to defend Australia than you or I would?”

It should be noted that Hanson has never served in the Armed Forces.

First Nations Australians have a proud and vital history of serving in the ADF, despite facing early official restrictions and discrimination.

Despite initial rules in the Defence Act of 1903 that discouraged or barred non-European enlistment, more than 1,200 First Nations people volunteered during World War I. These enlistment numbers may be higher still, as some people concealed their Indigenous heritage in order to serve.

Indigenous Australians have served in every major conflict and peacekeeping operation involving Australia since Federation in 1901.

In November 2016, Hanson appeared on Sky News (now News24) questioning the definition of who is considered 'Aboriginal'.

It was another example of her willingness to place Indigenous identity under political scrutiny, as though Aboriginality is something for politicians to define, debate or determine.

"If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified (as one), or if the community or the Elders accept you into that community, you can be defined as an Aboriginal," she told Sky News.

Sorry, what? If you marry an Aboriginal, you can be classified as one?

In 2018, Pauline Hanson slammed the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Opening ceremony for being 'too Aboriginal.'

The opening ceremony on the Gold Coast featured Indigenous performer Mau Power, the first hip-hop artist to emerge out of the Torres Strait, and world-renowned yidaki player William Barton.

According to Senator Hanson, the "20 minutes" devoted to Indigenous culture as part of the almost three-hour ceremony was "absolutely disgusting".

"Here we have an Aboriginal who was doing a rap song which I couldn't understand," she told Sky News.

"I'm not used to Aboriginals who sing rap, although fair enough.

“As far as I’m concerned, that is not Australia,” she added.

In 2023, William Barton - a Kalkadunga man from Mount Isa - was named the 2023 Queensland Australian of the Year and was a nominee for the national 2023 Australian of the Year award.

Hanson also used the interview to label herself an ‘Indigenous Australian.’

"I am Indigenous as far as I'm concerned. I was born here this is my country as much as anyone else," she declared.

 Gamilaroi man and social media advocate Luke Pearson responded to this claim.

“Pauline Hanson has become fond of telling everyone that there is no definition of the word Indigenous and then offering her own definition of Indigenous by stating that she is Indigenous to Australia because she was born here,” he said.

“So, according to Pauline’s definition - then sheep and cows or even a lion born at Dubbo Zoo are all animals that are Indigenous to Australia.”

“Spoiler alert: There is a definition of Indigenous and that’s not it,” Pearson wrote at the time.

In March 2023, Pauline Hanson was in Tamworth speaking at a public forum for the "No" campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The event was also attended by Barnaby Joyce, Alan Jones and former Labor minister Gary Johns.

In voicing her strong opposition to Constitutional Recognition and an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Hanson told the assembled crowd she was drafting a private member’s bill to define 'Aboriginality' in response to what she described as an "unreasonable increase in the numbers of First Nations people."

“A lot of people jump on the bandwagon and claim the benefits, because they claim to be Aboriginal,” she told the crowd.

She also described herself as a friend of “the true blacks – from up Darwin, up Cairns.”

Two months later Hanson attempted to introduce and advance her Acts Interpretation Amendment (Aboriginality) Bill 2023 multiple times in the Senate (notably in May and June 2023, and again in September 2024). The overwhelming majority of the Senate - including the Labor government, the Greens, and the Coalition - voted against allowing the bill to progress or be referred for inquiry, effectively blocking it.

In her statement on Closing the Gap in March this year, Hanson again attacked Aboriginal identity.

“The figures that we have are that about 980,000 people claim to be Aboriginal, yet, if you go to the native title, there are about 430,000 to 450,000 who claim to have a connection to the lands since 1788 for native title claim, yet here we have a census of 980,000 people claiming to be Aboriginal in this country," she said.

“It's like tick the box. You tick the box? You're going to get government assistance. A lot of these people are not Aboriginal,” she said.

Perhaps she forgot about her 2023 claim of being an ‘Indigenous Australian?’

Across the decades, Hanson’s rhetoric of “the true Blacks” the "Aboriginal industry" and even “special benefits” reminded me of the 1984 documentary film Couldn't Be Fairer, produced by Dennis O'Rourke and written by the late Queensland Aboriginal leader Mick Miller.

The documentary compiled statements from prominent figures of the era to expose the overt, systemic racism and social injustices endured by Aboriginal people under the political climate of the time.

In one clip a spokesperson for the Queensland Graziers' Association responds to programs to address Aboriginal disadvantage and dispossession.

“There’s no way in the world that I am happy with the fact that money is being lent to Aborigines at 2 per cent to build houses when our young people have got to pay 14 and 15 per cent to build a house and they've got to work their guts out and pay taxes to get it," he can be seen saying.

“The Aborigines are getting absolutely total help from not only the Federal Government - but the Queensland Government.

"Now I wouldn’t mind if it was the true Aborigine but there are so many hybrids and they’re nearly white – and this is where it hurts me.”

The film's title itself is derived from a 1983 quote by the then-Premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who claimed:"We treat them the same as everyone else – couldn't be fairer."

Hanson latest comments – or ‘gaff’ - saw condemnation from across the political spectrum, including from Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Coalition senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle, as well as independent Senator Lidia Thorpe.

Hanson has belatedly given a half-apology for her comments.

“All I’ve asked is for accountability from our … governments and from our politicians to address these concerns and stop using it as a political football, and I will continue to talk about this.

“If I’ve offended people by using that [word], yes, I will apologise for that,” she said.

But as Tarang Chawla - an anti-violence campaigner and advocate – wrote this week:

“It’s easy to condemn Pauline Hanson's comments about First Nations people as blatant, ignorant racism. She been running this playbook for decades.

“But she isn’t speaking into a vacuum, she knows there are Australians who will hear her and nod in agreement.

“By all means, condemn Pauline Hanson. But we also have to reckon with why, in 2026, these comments can win her more supporters than they cost her.”

In this political climate, the question isn’t if more derogatory comments will come; it’s how soon, and how much worse they’ll get.