My colleague Sarah Martin, who’s reported extensively on Hanson, asks her about her daughter, Lee Hanson.
double quotation mark Taxpayers are paying more than $160,000 a year for your daughter to seemingly campaign full-time in Tasmania. while employed at a political adviser for a New South Wales senator. Did you have any role in appointing her to that position?
Hanson looks livid to see Martin there,. goes on a personal attack against her telling her that she’ll be banned from any future press conferences and refused any interview requests.
Hanson accuses Martin of having an “obsession” with her, her party and Gina Rinehart.
double quotation mark Honestly you never give up.
You will put out lies about me, well, I’ve had enough of that.
You can read a few of Martin’s excellent works here, here and here.
To Martin’s question, Hanson says that her daughter was hired on her merits.
double quotation mark I didn’t get her that job. She got the job on her own merits, by someone who actually wanted to employ her. Her abilities, her skills in HR, her abilities in working for the Tas University eight years. was head of a department down there. So my daughter is very capable of doing it.
Martin asks her again to clarify that she had no role in the hiring,. Hanson says that she has already answered the question.
Legal bid on welfare debt calculation fails in high court
The high court has rejected an appeal from a man challenging the lawfulness of a method used to calculate welfare debts for almost two decades.
Matthew Chaplin. a then casual worker receiving youth allowance in 2014-15, challenged a method known as income apportionment, which was used to calculate welfare debts from at least 2003 until 2021. The method spread a welfare recipient’s income across fortnights in which they had not worked. The commonwealth Ombudsman deemed the method to be unlawful,. the federal government retrospectively validated the affected debts and set up a compensation scheme. It also proposed a different method to recalculate the debts. Chaplin’s high court case argued that the recalculation method was not legally sound.
The high court rejected his appeal on Wednesday. Chaplin’s lawyers. Victorian Legal Aid, said the ruling provided “clarity on a complex question of law that potentially impacts up to three million people”.
Lucy Adams, VLA’s director of civil justice, said:
double quotation mark Mr Chaplin’s case also highlights the need for effective guardrails when it comes to social security debt raising. Right now, Centrelink can raise. pursue debts as far back as it likes, when people often don’t have the evidence they need because it’s many years later. As recommended by the Robodebt royal commission, the Australian Government should implement a six-year limitation period. It’s crucial that Centrelink acts lawfully and that our social security system is fair and accountable. We thank our client Matthew for his courage to pursue this matter.
Hanson’s immigration statements examined
Just returning to. speech earlier this afternoon by Pauline Hanson to offer a bit more context on the immigration front.
In the speech. the One Nation leader suggested social cohesion wasn’t possible when nearly a quarter of Australians spoke a language other than English at home.
double quotation mark Again, the 2021 census showed that 1 in 4 people, 23% speak a language other than English at home, the most common being, Mandarin. Arabic. How can you generate social cohesion if people can’t speak the language? In that same census. 872,000 people self-reported, as speaking English ‘not well’ or ‘not at all.’ Under the failed policy of multiculturalism, all cultures are allowed equivalence to ours. Surely opposing that is not racist, it’s common sense.”
But let’s rewind. The 23% figure she stated, which is accurate, doesn’t mean those people can’t also speak English. Instead. the population of those self-reported as speaking English “not well” or “not at all” sits at about 872,000 people, or about 3.4% of people in Australia.
The census reports some other interesting facts. About 80% of those who can’t speak English well or at all were born overseas – that means 20% weren’t. Nearly two-thirds of the group had arrived in Australia more than 10 years ago.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics also noted one-third of people who spoke Khmer. a language of an ethnic group in Cambodia, could not speak English well or at all. The ABS said this was the highest proportion of any language group.
Alright, it’s a whirlwind of bloggers today for you. Cait Kelly is up on deck now for the rest of the arvo. Take care!
More than 28,000 Australians applied to buy SpaceX shares
Elon Musk’s SpaceX shares proved popular with Australian investors before its share market debut. according to the local lead retail broker, CommSec.
CommSec said in a statement that retail investors opened a record 37,000 international accounts ahead of the US company listing. “many” of which then applied for SpaceX shares.
CommSec then received over 28,000 applications to buy shares at the company’s initial public offering, which happened last Friday. CommSec said that was a record number, while the largest Australian IPO received just a quarter as many applications.
The tech business reportedly received applications globally from three times more investors than it could sell to. suggesting not all 28,000 Australia retail investor applicants bought in.
CommSec declined to comment when asked how many people were initially allocated or have bought SpaceX stock on CommSec. We do know one institutional investor that got shares though: Gina Rinehart.
SpaceX sold its shares for US$135 and they closed at US$201.80 on Tuesday. Investors have seen a near 50% return in just three trading days. The company is now valued at US$2.66tn, giving founder Musk an estimated net worth of US$1.3tn.
A lot of investors are happy to sell: 555m shares were issued on Friday but 322m sold on Tuesday.
Childcare centres are “out of control” says Hanson. after the government just announced a $3.6bn two-year agreement to continue funding a 15% wage rise for childcare educators.
There are a final few questions to Hanson (Hanson’s speech ran way over time).
The One Nation leader says there needs to be an investigation into how much money goes into childcare,. won’t say what she would do to overhaul the system.
double quotation mark I was a mother of four children. I didn’t have a university degree to look after my children. Why do we now expect these childcare centres to have students or people with some sort of degree to look after a child? It’s just got out of proportion. It’s just ridiculous.
We know. Hanson is in favour of women staying at home with their children – per her income splitting policy that would allow men to essentially share their income with their partner so they pay less tax.
Queensland attorney general pressed on future of state’s Aboriginal children’s commissioner role
Earlier, Queensland’s attorney general faced questions about the future of the state’s designated Aboriginal children’s commissioner.
Deb Frecklington announced reforms yesterday that would fold the state’s family. child commission into a new super-agency responsible for child safety. The body is led by two commissioners, one of them the Aboriginal. Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner, who must have an Indigenous background under state law. The commission investigates. makes recommendations about the system, and also includes the child death review board which reports on the deaths of children known to the system. Frecklington revealed yesterday that both bodies would become part of the new commission which will be responsible to the attorney general,. insisted that the investigatory agencies could remain independent of the department. Queensland does not currently have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner. The attorney general allowed the term of the previous incumbent, Natalie Lewis, to end earlier this month.
Frecklington told media on Wednesday that under the legislation establishing the new body a deputy commissioner role would be required to hold “demonstrated experience in Aboriginal. Torres Strait Islander affairs”. She was pressed on whether that person would be required to have Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islaner descent. “There must be a position that has demonstrated (experience in) Indigenous, Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander affairs. There are so many children, Queensland children across the system that are in need of protection, every single one of them,. we will ensure that every single one of them is represented by the commission,” she said.
About half of Queensland children in out of home care are Indigenous.
Hello again: we’re back to general news after that speech…
Pauline Hanson and those pesky migration figures
It feels like an age ago already. Pauline Hanson started off her speech with figures about the migrant character of Australia.
In the speech, Hanson said:
double quotation mark In the 2021 census. more than half of Australian residents, 51.5% were born overseas or had one parent born overseas. 51.5%. Is that supported by the Australian electorate? Is that what Australia wants? The comparable figure for the United States is 14%. Do Australians feel that the Nation is losing its identity along with its values? We all know the answer to that.
So, do the figures actually say this?
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 census. 51.5% of Australians had at least one parent born overseas so Hanson was on the money there.
However, the US figure she provided seems quite off the mark. The US Census Bureau reports its 2024 figures show around 93 million of the country’s population are first or second generation migrants. That equals around 27% of the population, or nearly double what Hanson suggested.
SBS chief political correspondent, Anna Henderson, asks Hanson what she believes should be the gestational limit for abortion. The party has promised to roll back abortion rights for women around Australia.
Hanson won’t put a time on it,. says she’s still accepting of people who need “to have an abortion for medical reasons”, including late-term terminations where the mother’s life was in danger. But she says abortions for sex selection (which experts say is predicated on misinformation ) shouldn’t be allowed. nor should abortions “the day before the birth”.
Here are the facts on abortion access around the country from MSI.
Then things get a little frostier as Henderson asks why Hanson wants to scrap the SBS,. says the broadcaster “is providing Australian news in 60 languages – not international news alone”.
double quotation mark Look, I can understand your question. You’re going to be without a job.
I want them to be able to learn to speak English before they get here, to to get their citizenship,. that would help them assimilate into our society … where is the assimilation? We are a monocultural nation - not a multicultural. And our our language is English.
Henderson pushes back several times, calling out Hanson. says, “isn’t it part of your platform to integrate people from other countries into Australia, to help them become Australian?”
Get Up! claims protest banner at NPC
Left-wing political activist group Get Up! has claimed responsibility for the banner behind Pauline Hanson during her first press club address.
double quotation mark I opposed a pay rise for workers while I took a $100,000 pay rise for myself.
GetUp! CEO Paul Ferris just sent around a statement to the media saying the address “deserved some honesty”:
double quotation mark Pauline Hanson has built her entire brand on being for the battlers. But her record tells a different story. One Nation has consistently opposed wage rises, affordable childcare, increases to the aged pension, and housing affordability measures.
We thought the occasion deserved some honesty. So we provided it.
‘I try to keep out of it as much as I possibly can!’ Hanson’s not a fan of Canberra
And don’t we know it. because it was recently revealed that Hanson was absent from 88% of Senate estimate hearing days over the past decade.
Canberra Times reporter Dana Daniel asks Hanson if she likes Australia’s capital city (not really, is the answer). about a branch of One Nation in Canberra that hasn’t held a single meeting and whose members don’t speak with the media.
Hanson says there has been a branch meeting and says the party has strong support in the capital.
double quotation mark I try to keep out of it as much as I possibly can! Although I love my job.
We have just start the a branch here. I heard in the first meeting, over 200 people there. So it’s going extremely well in Canberra.
One Nation plans to gut funding for Indigenous Australians
Hanson has promised to abolish the department for Aboriginal Australians. says that First Nations people should be treated like everyone else, and that one First Nations child shouldn’t get better education funding than a child next to them.
She says that there’s $30bn to be saved.
NITV reporter John Paul Janke asks where that figure comes from,. what happens to the First Nations people living in remote and rural areas if that funding and departmental support is stripped.
Hanson says “that money will go into consolidated revenue, where any Australian can get that help if they need help.”
double quotation mark And all this money that we’ve paid out. probably about $30bn plus a year, where has it gone?
Where is the accountability?
Where has the gap been closed?
That $30bn figure has been used previously by Warren Mundine –. the ANU did a fact check on it back in 2016. The tl; dr that whole $30bn a year isn’t going straight to First Nations people. also includes money that goes towards defence or regional infrastructure.
My colleague Sarah Martin, who’s reported extensively on Hanson, asks her about her daughter, Lee Hanson.
double quotation mark Taxpayers are paying more than $160,000 a year for your daughter to seemingly campaign full-time in Tasmania. while employed at a political adviser for a New South Wales senator. Did you have any role in appointing her to that position?
Hanson looks livid to see Martin there,. goes on a personal attack against her telling her that she’ll be banned from any future press conferences and refused any interview requests.
Hanson accuses Martin of having an “obsession” with her, her party and Gina Rinehart.
double quotation mark Honestly you never give up.
You will put out lies about me, well, I’ve had enough of that.
You can read a few of Martin’s excellent works here, here and here.
To Martin’s question, Hanson says that her daughter was hired on her merits.
double quotation mark I didn’t get her that job. She got the job on her own merits, by someone who actually wanted to employ her. Her abilities, her skills in HR, her abilities in working for the Tas University eight years. was head of a department down there. So my daughter is very capable of doing it.
Martin asks her again to clarify that she had no role in the hiring,. Hanson says that she has already answered the question.
Foreign aid should be ‘well spent’
Hanson says foreign aid should be well spent, but that Australia should “clean up our own back yard first”.
One Nation’s website promises to “redirect and reduce foreign aid spending, saving up to $3 billion annually.”
Hanson says she’s concerned that money is going to countries where there’s “corruption”. are taking money from China at the same time.
double quotation mark I’ve got 130,000 Australians living in poverty who can’t get a roof over their head. we’re giving foreignaid to countries that don’t respect it and corruption happening there, that needs to change.
My concern is they [Pacific nations] are still accepting from China. If China is our biggest concern, we need to look at at the relationship they have with China. how it’s going to impact on us.
Will Hanson support her previous policy of a flat 25% income tax rate?
Asked if she will take to the election her previous idea of a flat 25% income tax rate, Hanson won’t say,. does believe Australia’s taxes are too high.
She says she wants to introduce income splitting – an idea that’s been around for a while. would encourage mothers to stay at home with children.
double quotation mark I’m not going to give you where my head’s at the moment for tax policy – I intend to speak to those experts. the economists, the people that I trust who have a good understanding of our tax system.
She tells the government to rein in its spending to afford it.
On to industrial relations
Hanson is asked about her previous positions having criticised minimum wage increases, opposed same job, same pay, voted against casual workers’ rights, wage theft criminalisation,. workplace protection for the gig economy and you’ve argued recently again for more powers for bosses to sack workers.
Hanson, who famously once ran a fish. chip shop, counters the question and says that we should think about the small business owners. She says one business person told her the latest increase (to what she doesn’t specify – perhaps wages) is going to cost him $50,000. that he would need to find $100,000 or let people go.
double quotation mark So it is of great concern. You need to look at the other the ledger – can businesses afford and pay that?
She backs an industrial relations overhaul and doubles down on her argument for bosses to sack workers:
Businesses also tell me you can’t sack people these days.
double quotation mark They’re on their phones, they don’t work, they don’t turn up, they actually are lazy,. businesses are tied to it. They’ve had enough.
Hanson is asked if she will front up to daily press conferences in front of all media.
Hanson says she won’t be a “football” and has already banned the Guardian and ABC from One Nation events.
She won’t explicitly say whether she’ll do daily conferences and allow everyone inside the tent:
double quotation mark I’m not going to be anyone’s football to kick around when you want to. I want truthful, honest reporting from the media. You will have access to me.
Connell pushes back and asks if that access will include all media, Hanson replies:
double quotation mark Let’s see how it goes between now and the start of the campaign. If you want to keep bashing me around, I don’t forget.
I’m like a bloody old elephant.
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