Bitter feud between Pauline Hanson and Lidia Thorpe takes a dramatic turn over three-word allegation

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has issued defamation warnings to Lidia Thorpe and Channel Nine’s Today show after the senator labelled her ‘a convicted racist’ on national television. 

Senator Hanson’s top legal team, which is also managing her racism case against Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, fired off the legal letters following Senator Thorpe’s appearance on Thursday morning’s program.

The letters, titled ‘urgent defamation’, demanded Senator Thorpe apologise for calling Senator Hanson a ‘convicted racist’ or face legal action.

‘This morning, you gave an interview broadcast on the Nine Network during the Today Show in which you referred to our client,’ the letter read.

‘You alleged during that interview that Senator Hanson has been convicted of racism. That never occurred.

‘No such criminal offence was raised against our client and no such conviction exists.

‘It is highly irresponsible of you to have used this language on national television. It cannot have occurred innocently given how self-evidently false your claim is.’

The letter continued: ‘We require you to immediately and publicly withdraw the allegation that our client stands convicted of a criminal offence and to apologise to her for your inappropriate conduct.

Senator Hanson (pictured) issued Senator Thorpe and the Nine Network a defamation warning over the sledge

‘You are a public servant who has a platform that should be used responsibly. Part of that involves urgently correcting yourself when you speak in error.

‘We look forward to your prompt response.’

A statement from Senator Hanson added: ‘Media outlets repeating the false claim by Lidia Thorpe that Senator Pauline Hanson has been ‘convicted of racism’ have been put on notice they may face court proceedings.

A Federal Court on November 1 found Senator Hanson had racially vilified Senator Faruqi by telling her to ‘p*ss off back to Pakistan’ in a message on X, formerly Twitter. 

Senator Hanson’s legal team has filed an appeal on the judgement, saying her sledge wasn’t racist as she previously told another senator to ‘go back’ to New Zealand.

Her team also claimed Senator Hanson’s comment couldn’t be considered racial vilification as she didn’t mention Senator Mehreen’s skin colour. 

Senator Hanson is using nearly $700,000 donated by supporters to help fund her impressive legal team.

She will be represented by leading barrister Sue Chrysathanou and her solicitor Anthony Jeffries, who also represents Lisa Wilkinson in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.

Justice Angus Stewart’s findings handed down on November 1 found Senator Hanson’s post of X, formerly Twitter, broke section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and was an ‘angry personal attack’ and conveyed a ‘strong form of racism’. 

However, Senator Hanson’s attack wasn’t racist as ‘it only targeted Senator Faruqi, there is no explicit or implicit reference to colour’.

‘It was not pleaded nor put to Senator Hanson that the Hanson tweet targeted immigrants (generally) and ‘people of colour’,’ the defence documents seen by news.com.au stated.

Fatima Payman (pictured) slammed Senator Hanson as ‘racist’ for tabling a document questioning her right to sit in parliament due to her Afghan background

Senator Hanson’s team also argued against accusations the post was anti-Muslim. 

‘The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet targets Muslims and conveys an anti-Muslim message, in circumstances where there was not a single implicit or explicit reference to Islam in the Hanson tweet,’ it said.

‘…The primary judge erred in finding that the Hanson tweet was reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate groups of people by reference to the groups ‘people of colour who are migrants to Australia or are Australians of relatively recent migrant heritage’ and ‘Muslims who are people of colour in Australia’.

‘None of these groups were pleaded by Senator Faruqi, and Senator Hanson was not given notice that these groups would be the subject of adverse findings against her until the publication of the judgment.’

Tensions between Senator Hanson and Senator Thorpe after the controversial Indigenous politician yelled Senator Hanson was a ‘convicted racist’ following a furious spray from Fatima Payman.

Senator Payman, who left Labor to set up her own party earlier this year, unleashed on the One Nation leader, accusing her of racism and claiming she spread hatred and division.

Their dispute was triggered by a document Senator Hanson tabled in which she questioned whether Senator Payman’s Afghan citizenship disqualified her from serving in parliament.

Section 44c of the Australian constitution prevents anyone who holds citizenship of another country from sitting in parliament.

A Federal Court on November 1 found Senator Hanson (pictured) had racially vilified Mehreen Faruqi by telling her to ‘p*ss off back to Pakistan’ in a message on X, formerly Twitter

Senator Payman was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, but gained Australian citizenship in 2005. 

This, however, did not automatically revoke her Afghanistan citizenship, therefore raising questions over her eligibility to sit in the senate.

Senator Payman claims that she contacted the Afghanistan embassy in Australia in October 2021 to renounce her Afghan citizenship but they could not do it because they had no relationship with the new Taliban government.

Nevertheless, Senator Payman received legal advice from the Labor party that she had taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to revoke her foreign citizenship and was eligible.

On Wednesday, Senator Payman lashed out at the One Nation leader in parliament, suggesting she ‘go to Afghanistan and talk to the Taliban about this’.  

‘All that Senator Hanson has done in this place is spread hatred, spread division,’ Senator Payman seethed.

‘I am very honoured that I live rent free in Senator Hanson’s mind, but I think you’ve got better things to do than worry about Section 44.’

Senator Hanson hit back, insisting that Senator Payman’s ‘eligibility to sit in the Australian Senate remains under a cloud’.

Senator Hanson’s legal team claimed her comment about Senator Faruqi (pictured) wasn’t racist as she’d previously told another senator to ‘go back to’ New Zealand

She said that the tough standards applied to elected representatives during the 2017 eligibility crisis, which saw 15 politicians lose their seats because they held dual-citizenship, had not been applied to Payman. 

‘If she’d been elected in 2016 instead of 2022, she would have been referred to the High Court like all the others,’ Senator Hanson said. 

‘If she’d been elected as a conservative in 2022, I suspect she’d be referred right away.’

The One Nation leader criticised the Greens for attempting to block her tabling of documents outlining her concerns about Senator Payman’s eligibility.

‘The Greens have never respected our Constitution. Marxists always despise the institutions of democracy,’ she said. 

‘I’m sure they’d love to dismantle the Constitution and replace it with some version of the communist manifesto.’

Senator Hanson called on Senator Payman to provide a ‘lot more evidence’ of her attempts to revoke her Afghanistan citizenship, arguing that to fail to to do so would set a ‘dangerous precedent’.  

‘There’s a very good reason why the architects of our Constitution required that our elected representatives have undivided loyalties,’ Senator Hanson said. 

‘It’s also the expectation of the Australian people that no foreign citizen or dual citizen be permitted to sit in the seat of our democracy.’

Senator Thorpe (pictured)  told the Today show on Thursday that she had ‘no regrets’ about ‘standing up’ against racism

Her comments came after Senator Payman had accused her of racism by listing previous comments made by Senator Hanson, including her first speech in which she said Australia was ‘in danger of being swamped by Asians’ and that ‘Aboriginality would no longer exist’ if her party were in power. 

‘If that is not racist, what is it?’ Senator Payman yelled as she slammed her fist down on the table in the Senate.

Independent Ralph Babet could be seen over Senator Payman’s shoulder, trying to contain his shock at the outburst. 

‘Oh it’s not racist?’ Senator Payman added, sarcastically. 

‘Somebody bring the dictionary because Senator Hanson does not know the definition of racism. 

‘The fact that you would say just weeks ago to Senator Faruqi, ‘piss off back to Pakistan’; you’re not just vindictive, mean, nasty, you bring disgrace to the human race. No dignity whatsoever as a senator in this prestigious place.’

Senator Thorpe could be heard repeatedly shouting ‘You are a convicted racist!’.

Senator Thorpe (left) could be heard repeatedly shouting ‘You are a convicted racist!’ to Senator Hanson (right) on Wednesday

In a speech outside parliament on Thursday, following her suspension from the chamber for the rest of the sitting year, Senator Thorpe labelled the whole of Australia ‘racist’ and cited her activism as the reason for her ban. 

‘This is a very racist, divided country,’ she told reporters.

‘But that’s not what we want, we want peace, we want liberation, we want self determination. We want to decide our own destinies, not this place with the native police.’

Senator Thorpe earlier told the Today show that she had ‘no regrets’ about ‘standing up’ against racism.