One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has apologised to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over remarks she made about his late mother, Maryanne, and her decades living in public housing.
Hanson addressed the controversy on Tuesday, after facing criticism that she had avoided media questions in the days following renewed backlash over the comments.
Her remarks concerning Albanese’s mother were originally made during an appearance on The Karl Stefanovic Show in January, but resurfaced last week.
‘Senator Hanson, do you regret making comments about Anthony Albanese’s mother?’ a reporter asked.
Hanson initially defended her position, saying: ‘I raised a comment with regards to housing commission. My comments weren’t distasteful towards Anthony Albanese’s mother at all.’
Pressed again on whether she regretted the remarks, Hanson offered an apology to the Prime Minister. ‘I was referring to housing commission at that time, so if he’s taken offence to it, well, I’m sorry for that,’ she said.
The One Nation leader also apologised for describing Aboriginal Australians as ‘the most primitive race on earth’ in an interview last year on the Jamie J Podcast, co-hosted by former Liberal candidate and News24 presenter Jaimee Rodgers.
‘You used the word “primitive”. Will you apologise for that?’ a reporter asked Hanson on Tuesday.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has apologised to Anthony Albanese over comments she made about his late mother.
‘If I’ve offended people by using that, yes, I will apologise for that,’ Hanson replied.
‘I will not back away from what needs to be discussed and we can’t back away from what is happening in the country.
‘I see the division that’s happening in Australia. I’ve always advocated that we are Australians all together and should all be treated equally on a needs basis, not about race.
‘Until we actually do that, we’re not going to move on from what’s happened in the past.’
In the Karl Stefanovic Show interview, Hanson launched a harsh critique of the Prime Minister’s remarks about his background, taking aim at his mother and the fact she lived for decades in housing commission accommodation.
‘Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 (years) – and he said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years,’ she said.
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‘Sorry, that is not on, to me. It should be limited time; you have been given a hand up, move it on to the next ones coming through.’
Anthony Albanese grew up in social housing in Camperdown in Sydney’s inner west, where his mother, Maryanne, lived on a disability pension because of chronic arthritis until her death
In the Karl Stefanovic Show interview, Hanson launched a harsh critique of the Prime Minister’s remarks about his background, taking aim at his mother and the fact she lived for decades in housing commission accommodation
During the interview, Hanson said she had grown up on a street with housing commission properties.
‘It was a helping hand to those people, but they had jobs. And they worked,’ she added.
In the Jamie J Podcast interview, Hanson recalled a conversation with a teacher from Western Australia, claiming the education system had shifted away from teaching broader aspects of Australian history.
‘A teacher from Western Australia wrote to me and said, “the whole curriculum has changed. We’re not teaching Australian history about civil rights, about what’s happened in the past”,’ Hanson said.
She argued schools were placing too much emphasis on Indigenous studies and questioned the value of teaching Aboriginal culture.
‘We’re actually all leaning towards this … teaching about Aboriginal culture and language. For what?’ she said.
Hanson then launched into a broader criticism of Indigenous Australians, claiming they had contributed little to the nation despite 60,000 years on the continent.
‘And I’ll say it on your program, what the hell have they done in this country?’ Hanson said.
‘You know, supposedly 60,000 years, they’d never invented the wheel. There was nothing there.
‘What are we actually holding up? A few, you know, rock paintings. Sorry, they’re most primitive race on Earth.’
more to come
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