1 - Hanson attacked AIDS and the people who suffer from AIDS during a statement made in 2006, when she was considering a return to politics.
“We’re bringing in people from South Africa at the moment. There’s a huge amount coming into Australia, who have diseases; they’ve got AIDS.”
2 - Despite typifying a well-off, successful Australian, felt it important to bring up just how unfair it was to her to be constantly reminded that white settlement was a traumatic event for indigenous Australians:
“I am fed up with being told, ‘This is our land’. Well, where the hell do I go? I was born here, and so were my parents and children. I will work beside anyone and they will be my equal, but I draw the line when told I must pay and continue paying for something that happened over 200 years ago.”
3 - There are those that believe Hanson is a racist. There are those who believe she’s simply against the concept of globalisation. Respectively, there are those who’ve seen her maiden speech to Parliament and those who haven’t.
“I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40% of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist, but if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country. A truly multicultural country can never be strong or united.”
4 - During her maiden speech in the House of Representatives the sentence in which Hanson claimed
“I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians”
became the most well-known line of the speech.
5 - In 1996, 60 Minutes ran a story titled “The Hanson Phenomenon”. During the interview, Hanson was asked if she was, xenophobic. Hanson’s reply was notoriously simple: “Please explain?”
The response became so infamous that it reached the Australian top 10 charts after it was appropriated by satirical character Pauline Pantsdown, in the song I Don’t Like It.'Please Explain?'
