Pauline Hanson is being sued for hate speech

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Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the first of May.

I'm Zara, I'm sam.

This week, a hate speech trial against One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has begun in the Federal Court.

A defamation trial between Deputy Green's leader Marine Ferruki and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has begun, with Australia's hate speech laws expected to be put to the test.

Well National leader Pauline Hanson has been accused of unleashing a torrent of public racist abuse against Green senator Marine Ferruki, including threats against her life. The case, brought by Green Senator Marine Ferruki, centers around an exchange on social media following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

It comes after Hansen was accused of racially discriminating against Green's deputy leader Marie Ferruki in a social media post from twenty twenty two. Hanson and Faruki have both faced questioning so far in the hearing, so on today's podcast, we're going to explain a bit about the context of the case and what could happen next before we get there though, sam what's making headlines.

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And what was the post that actually kicked all of this off if we go right to the beginning of the case.

So in a social media post following the death of Queen Elizabeth this second, you'll remember that was in September of twenty twenty two. You were on holidays. I was slicsfully unaware.

I was away what you werewa.

Was sleeping anyway at that time Marine Ferruki, who as I said, is a Green senator. She wrote it was then on Twitter now on x saying condolences to those who mourn the queen. I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonized peoples. She called for a treaty with First Nations, justice and reparations for British colonies. In response, Pauline Hansen

So Pauline Hanson fires off a tweets towards Marine Ferruki in twenty twenty two. What's happened from then to now?

Yes, So, shortly after the tweets were posted, Marine Ferruki moved to what's called censure Pauline Hanson in the Federal Senate. And essentially what a center is is a formal statement disapproval of a politician's actions or policies, doesn't have any legal consequences and doesn't really hold much weight. We've seen a number of politicians censured and never really translates outside of Parliament House.

So it's kind of like being told off.

Yeah, so Fariki urged her fellow senators to condemn Hanson's quote divisive, anti migrant and racist statement, which she had said unleashed an avalanche of hate. Instead, Labor and Coalition senators passed a general motion at the time condemning racism and discrimination in all its.

Forms, so she didn't really get the response from the Parliament that she'd hoped for.

She didn't, and so from their Marine Ferruki moved to lodge a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. However, when Pauline Hanson refused to participate in an investigation. There, Marine Fruki ended up pursuing legal action instead, and that's how we get to hear So Marine Feruki is arguing in this legal action that Pauline Hansen engaged in unlawful offensive behavior and that that is a breach of Australia's

Okay, so that's what Farruki is arguing in court. What does Pauline Hanson say in response to all of this?

Pauline Hanson is denying that the tweets were made based on race. Her lawyers have made two main defenses. So the first is that the post is protected by fair comment on a matter of public interest, so arguing there that Hanson therefore had a right to make a statement

Okay. Interesting, So Pauline Hanson. Ultimately, there isn't denying she ever said it. I mean it's there in writing what she's said.

I can't deny it. Yeah, millions of people.

Right, So what she's saying is she was allowed to say it because of those political and public interest defenses. So both sides are bringing those arguments to court this week. What have we heard in the court so far? So?

Day one started with Marine Ferruki up as a witness, and she was arguing, as expected, that Pauline Hanson's tweet was racist. She said that she felt like she had been silenced on colonization and made to feel like she didn't belong here. She said that she started experiencing racism in an overwhelming way once she entered into public life.

Okay, So then Marine Feriki went off the stand in Pauline Hanson then took over. What did she have to say?

Yeah, So on day two, Pauline Hansen took to the stand and over the course of the day she was essentially just played a number of clips of comments that she had made over a number of years, including in twenty seventeen when she said, and I quote here, Islam was a disease that people need to vaccinate themselves from. So Faruki's lawyers were claiming that Hansen told her to go back to where she came from because she is

So this is ongoing. We'll keep everybody updated as this case progresses. But Fariki brought this case against Hanson in the beginning, what is she actually looking for here?

If she wins, she's asking for an apology from Pauline Hanson and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in compensation to be paid towards a charity. Whether or not she gets that, we will have to wait and see.

Thanks for taking us through that, Zara. We'll bring everybody the result, perhaps in a news story when that gets passed down by the court, and who knows how long. Just a quick bit of news from the Daily Ods. We have announced that on Monday next week we are launching our first sports newsletter. It's going to be hitting your inbox at five pm every weekday. It would mean the world if you signed up. I'll throw a link in today's bio. We'll be back again tomorrow. Until then,