Hanson: “Changing Australia Day won’t appease those with ‘chips’ on their shoulders”
MEDIA RELEASE
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has condemned talk of changing Australia Day, arguing that any changes would never appease those with a “chip on their shoulders” who want to “get rid of” the commemoration.
The Senator’s comments were made to viewers around Australia during her second live national broadcast, streamed on her Facebook page, “Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain”.
A caller named Scott, who’ll have a few “quiet ones” and a barbecue with friends and family on Australia Day, said the use of the term Invasion Day “gets on my nerve”.
Senator Hanson replied: “It gets up my nose too, don’t worry about that, and I think a lot of Aussies.”
“I’ve got no intentions, if I’ve got anything to do with it, of changing the day to another day because they feel offended. Well, I’m sorry, get over it, move on.
“And it doesn’t matter if you moved it from the 26th, if you move it to another day, the chip on the shoulders is still there, you’ve still got the attitude, and it won’t be any different, whatever day you pick, until they get rid of it altogether.”
Another caller, Sayed, agreed that Australia Day should say where it is.
“I’m voicing what a lot of Australians think about it,” Senator Hanson said.
“You can change the date, it’s not going to change history… It wasn’t invaded; I’m sorry, the country was settled.
“My attitude is, and I’ve said it before, get rid of the chip off your shoulder, we’re all Australians together, and I won’t be told that this is not my country. It is.
“The same as any migrant that’s come here, they’ve taken up citizenship, they love this country as much as anyone who’s born here, and let’s unite as one Australia.”
Senator Hanson will spend Australia Day at Yeppoon in central Queensland, where she will conduct a citizenship ceremony.
She noted that, as the member for Oxley in the late 1990s, she spoke her mind on the issue to new citizens at an Ipswich Council Australia Day ceremony.
“And at the very end I said to them, ‘Well, unless you give this country your undivided loyalty, I’ll be the first one to take you to the airport, put you on a plane, and wave you hooray’,” she recounted.
“Well, they all used to burst out laughing, well the officials and the Council were all absolutely shocked and, guess what, well they withdrew my invitation to go to these citizenship ceremonies.
“But the whole fact was, guess who was still standing there, as the last person, getting photos with all these new citizens? …I was there, the last one, to welcome all these new Australians, and they understood what I meant and they had a laugh about it.
“But anyway, there’s some precious people out there.”
The live Facebook show featured Senator Hanson and her chief-of-staff James Ashby discussing a range of issues, from her recent trip to remote western Queensland, flood recovery in northern Queensland, Maleny Dairies losing out to overseas milk providers, Family Law and Child Support, the Queensland 2032 Olympics bid, climate change, the loss of manufacturing in Australia, the need for phone towers in rural areas, and upcoming legislation such as the $10,000 cash ban bill.
The hosts also chatted to a number of callers from around Australia who were able to chat directly about their issues to Senator Hanson.
The two-hour Facebook broadcast attracted 162,000 viewers.
Note: Senator Hanson’s conversation with Scott is available at https://www.facebook.com/PaulineHansonAu/videos/472416150378562/?epa=SEARCH_BOX at time code: 1hour 54 minutes and with Sayed at 1.59. Her recounting of her Oxley citizens ceremony is at 1.51.
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