Cold-blooded falsities
STATEMENT
Journalist Lucy Carne (Driven to it? This was cold-blooded murder. CM, 25 Feb), has grossly misrepresented recent comments by me in a way that is false, unconscionable, and defamatory.
She made up words and thoughts when she wrote in her column that I made “flippant remarks” that suggested “Rowan Baxter made a spontaneous decision to slaughter his family” and that Hannah Clarke “deserved her brutal death”.
These comments have no factual basis and, as such, are a complete fabrication by Ms Carne. They in no way reflect anything that I have said or believe.
My full comments on the matter earlier this week included these words: “A lot of people are driven to do these acts for one reason or another, hopefully the family law enquiry will get to the bottom of it, but don’t bastardise all men out there, or women for that matter, because these things happen. Let’s get to the bottom of it, why it is happening, and hopefully find the answers so it never happens again.”
Ms Carne suggested I was wrong to say people are driven to commit these things for one reason or another.
My comments highlighted the fact that human nature is such that people are actually driven, or motivated, by their life circumstances – including factors like mental illness, stress, anger, health problems, cowardice, the legacy of past experiences, and other influences – to do all manner of things. But any such factors don’t nullify personal responsibility and never excuse the committing of tragic events such as we saw recently.
Another falsity in Ms Carne’s column was the suggestion that I was attempting to “swerve the blame” for the murder away from Mr Baxter, who we all know is solely responsible for taking his family members’ lives.
Ms Carne’s suggestions go very much against my personal beliefs that, regardless of motivations, individual people remain responsible for their own actions.
Ms Carne also wrongfully concluded that my full comments “reinforced the reality Hanson refuses to accept that 95% of women and men who are murdered in Australia and killed by men”, that my views would have been “not as impartial” if the killer had instead been a woman, and that I have a “misogynistic motivation to skew the domestic violence crisis”.
These suggestions are all inaccurate and only serve to muddy the domestic violence debate and prevent genuine discussion to find solutions that will reduce such tragedies in the future.
Ms Carne’s column, overall, includes blatant falsities deliberately intended to smear my character, uses cherry-picked quotes out of context, aims to unfairly influence members of the public into believing I hold views that I don’t hold and is, therefore, quite clearly libellous.
I’m proud that my personal campaigning has actually resulted in the multi-party Family Law Inquiry that is taking a holistic and honest look at all aspects of family law, so we can make serious inroads into Australia’s troubled family law system. As a consequence, hopefully we can reduce violence and save the lives of women and children (and men) who find themselves in dangerous domestic situations.
Senator Pauline Hanson
One Nation Leader and Senator For Queensland
END
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