ANALYSIS

Pauline Hanson's howlers in a speech off-key

Daniel Flitton

To borrow a punchline from American comic Stephen Colbert, Pauline Hanson refuses to be politically correct. So, to be safe, she refuses to be correct.

Her first speech as a senator is maddeningly thick with selective statistics, wild assertions and untested claims, but a handful of howlers stand out.*

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Senator's bombshell

Pauline Hanson's anti-Muslim manifesto

The Greens walk out during the One Nation leader's maiden senate speech as she calls for the burqa to be banned, Muslim immigration to be stopped and the construction of mosques to be halted.

"My pride and patriotism were instilled in me from an early age when I watched the Australian flag raised every morning at school and sang the national anthem."

Yeah, that'd be "Advance Australia Fair". Which was first adopted as the national anthem in 1974.

Senator Hanson turned 20 that year.

To be excruciatingly fair, she didn't specify exactly which national anthem the young Hanson was tuning up to.

Maybe Coorparoo High School in Queensland was ahead of the time.

But it might be worth pointing out "God Save The Queen" - reinstated as Australia's national anthem in 1976, then finally dumped in 1984 - doesn't actually mention Australia.

Australia's players line up for the singing of the national anthem during the women's rugby sevens gold medal match against at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: THEMBA HADEBE

"Governments have continually brought in high levels of immigration, so they say, to stimulate the economy. This is rubbish."

Speaking of Senator Hanson's love of the national anthem, why don't Australians ever remember to sing that second verse of ours?

Join with me now, fellow country-persons (see what I did there?), in a rousing chorus and belt it out:

"For those who've come across the seas,

We've boundless plains to share".

Is this rubbish?

"I was imprisoned in 2003 for three years, held in maximum security on electoral fraud charges."

Let be clear, Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre is no luxury hotel.

But the term "high security facility" is the preferred description of Queensland authorities.

I know, that's getting all finicky about definitions, and 11 weeks on the inside must have been tough.

Yet it is also true that "maximum security units" are only found in some men's prisons in Queensland.

Just saying.

Pauline Hanson starts her sentence in Queensland's Wacol women's prison.

Pauline Hanson starts her sentence in Queensland's women's prison. Photo: Supplied

"If they cannot rein in the budget with overpaid public servants — one being the head of Australia Post, who is on $4.8 million per year ..."

Any guesses why Senator Hanson would single out Ahmed Fahour? Could it possibly be because he is Australia's highest profile Muslim business leader?

And the figure is wrong. Australia Post won't confirm his salary (their annual report is here) and, there's no doubt he's paid way more than the the humble Aussie worker, but the real figure is likely closer to $2.1 million.

How did Senator Hanson get it so wrong? Just type into Google the words "ahmed fahour salary". See the first hit.

This story on onenation.com.au was written by "an Anonymous Australian Resident".

"Now we are in danger of being swamped by Muslims, who bear a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own."

So let's get to her updated slogan, because the old one warning about Asians didn't pan out. (Although she is still savage about China.)

She is also sure to link Islam with terrorism … and mention the burqa and niqab, Halal food, pray rooms and other far-right touchstones.

Senator Hanson is right that the country's immigration intake is 190,000, but what she doesn't say is this the total number of available places.

The most recent estimate from the Australians Bureau of Statistics is 177,100 people migrated to Australia last year from overseas - which is actually the lowest number in almost a decade.

And, of course, they were not all Muslim.

Of the Muslims who are living in Australia, by far the largest number were born … in Australia.

Almost 180,000, according to the last census results.

And overall, India, China and Britain remain the biggest source countries for Australian migrants.

* Warning. There may be more.

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