Barnaby Joyce has backed Pauline Hanson's support for mass deportations of visa overstayers while distancing One Nation from the White Australia policy, as fallout continues from the One Nation leader's controversial European trip.
Hanson's Controversial Europe Trip
Pauline Hanson and her colleagues have spent days clarifying, explaining, or walking back headline-grabbing parts of her trip, which included a podcast interview with far-right convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, attendance at a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show, and downtime by a hotel pool in Italy with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Channel Seven's Spotlight program on Sunday showed Hanson meeting Rupert Lowe, leader of the hard-right party Restore Britain. Lowe gave her a party pamphlet titled “mass deportations,” and Hanson replied they were “on the same page.” When asked by reporter Liam Bartlett whether she thought “this concept of mass deportation is a good one,” Hanson responded: “I love it.” One Nation's website states the party wants to “deport 75,000 illegal migrants.”
Joyce's Stance on Deportations
Joyce did not back down from those comments on Monday. Though he did not repeat the term “mass deportations,” he told Sunrise: “As it becomes apparent that they’re not supposed to be here, they’ll be put on a plane and sent back to where they’re supposed to be.” Asked how One Nation would enforce such a policy, Joyce said: “We’ve got to make sure as people present themselves for medical issues or other things, they’re removed from the country.”
Defense of White Australia Policy Comments
Joyce and Hanson's daughter, Lee, on Monday again claimed the party leader had been taken out of context when, during the Robinson podcast, she blamed the end of the White Australia policy for creating what she sees as problems with migration. Asked by Robinson about “the changing face of Australia due to Islamic immigration,” Hanson replied: “They opened up and got rid of the White Australian policy then they started bringing in the different migrants.”
Hanson published two social media videos at the weekend criticizing “left wing media and their false, click bait stories” over her White Australia policy comments. On Sunday evening, Lee Hanson – who works for One Nation senator Sean Bell – defended her mother, claiming she had been “misinterpreted.” “Under no way, shape, or form did she say she wished the White Australia policy hadn’t have been changed,” she said. “She does not support it and she does not want it back. So I do believe it’s been taken out of context.” She conceded that her mother “may not be the most eloquent person in the world.”
Joyce's Similar Defense
Joyce, on Sunrise, offered a similar defense. While he said One Nation “don’t support the White Australia policy,” Joyce claimed there had been a “chain of events” from its abolition which had led to bad outcomes. “It’s a statement of fact, and Pauline herself said that at the start, it started from [Harold] Holt, actually the wind-down of the White Australia policy, a very good thing,” Joyce said. “And at the start there was really no issues with it. But over time we got a section of people who didn’t want to really assimilate with Australia, didn’t work within the guardrails of Australia.”
Criticism from Labor
Labor minister Tanya Plibersek said on Sunrise that Hanson “will say anything and then when it is challenged, she wants to stick her head in the sand and pretend she never said it.” “She’s palling around with convicted criminals, she’s trashing Australia overseas, then she’s saying she’s all for White Australia and for mass deportations and today apparently she’s not,” she said.
Further Controversy
During the Spotlight program, Hanson said: “I’m not going to apologise for meeting with Tommy Robinson.” But in a Sky News interview on Monday, Joyce said Seven had pushed for the Robinson podcast to happen, repeating a claim made by Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby last week. Seven has been contacted for comment. However, one Seven source pushed back on One Nation’s claims, saying the podcast was organised by Hanson’s party.
In a Facebook post on Monday afternoon, Hanson published what she claimed was the “pitch” her office had received from Spotlight when proposing the program, asking her followers: “Tell me if last nights [sic] show reflects their pitch?” The purported pitch proposes a special on Australia’s immigration numbers, which the document refers to as “uncontrolled immigration,” including suggestions that Reform UK leader Nigel Farage invite Hanson to England to discuss immigration in Europe.
Polling Improvement
Despite the controversy surrounding Hanson’s trip and increasing scrutiny on her colleague Malcolm Roberts’ advocacy for conspiracy theories, One Nation has improved its polling position and now sits equal with Labor on primary vote in the latest Newspoll.
