Due to Tony Abbott's failure to abolish Sec 18c of the Racial Discrimination 1975 (he promised to do it) the Federal Court has dismissed Pauline Hanson's appeal against the finding that she breached the Act for posting that Green Senator Faruqi should return to Pakistan after that person disparaged Queen Elizabeth at the time of HM's death.

Not for the first time, the insidious 18c has been criticised; this time by Dr. Andrew Bushnell, Director of the Law and Freedom Program at the IPA. He said that18c “places an illegitimate and unnecessary burden on political debate”.

18c has been used on multiple occasions to shut down debate and censor political opponents - while people like Faruqi can take advantage of the ability to badmouth and insult dead people, in this case no less than the non-political head of the Commonwealth for 70 years.

While the Federal Court might have applied 18c lawfully in a strict sense, by inserting itself into a dispute “between two sitting elected parliamentarians (it has) exposed the absurdity of this law”.

Faruqi has used the broad terms and “low threshold” of 18c to shut down a political opponent.

Bushnell believes that this affair and the use of 18c will have a “chilling effect” on contentious discussions like immigration. He believes that Senator Hanson should appeal the decision in the High Court, as it threatens the free speech of all Australians.

People like Dr. Andrew Bushnell, Director of the Law and Freedom Program at the IPA have been moaning relentlessly about section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act for decades now. Yawn - nothing new to see there.

With regard to this incident, “… the Court found that Senator Hanson had a tendency to make racist, discriminatory, hateful, derogatory and Islamophobic statements, particularly in relation to persons of colour, migrants to Australia and Muslims. She was found to be an argumentative witness who would say anything which came to mind if she felt it would suit her at the time...”

In her defence Poor-lean argued that s 18C and s 18D are invalid as they are in conflict with freedom of political communication. The court rejected this claim and ruled that her response was deemed not to be a fair comment.
Source: https://www.hrlc.org.au/case-summaries/2024-11-25-faruqi-v-hanson/

Personally, when a politician disagrees with something others say and resorts to nasty, degrading slurs, it only succeeds in lowering the already low standard of political discourse.

Good on you Mahreen, someone I've called a friend for 20 years. Intelligent, articulate, well versed in the political issues of the day. An Australian who migrated from Pakistan, with husband and family in the 1990's eventually settling in inner city Sydney, ran in a couple of state elections for the Greens, very good campaigner, these folk are the perfect example of hard working migrants that have become decent Australians in their own right.

The Lovely Pauline, she dodges work 88% of the time, and then has the hide to call hard working Australian LAZY that should be SACKED! We know who should be SACKED!

Faruqi:
"I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built
on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised
peoples.
We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First
Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies &
becoming a republic."

[Yeah fair enough now shuttup already]

Hanson:
"piss off back to Pakistan".

[Should I be surprised someone said it?]

This is 'Home and Away' level blowup or a small gathering of people after everyones had a few drinks.
It's laughable, doesn't pass the pub test for legal action.

I don't really care...
Maybe we should let them fight it out. Hail pulling, nails etc.
Why don't we just let them tell each other what they really think.

Faruqi seems to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder and she didn't even move to Australia from Pakistan until she was 29.
She seems to be a little racially divisive in her own outward view of the world.
http://www.instagram.com/reel/DCgXx9NNDin/

She says that in Parliament, and then it's 'Waaaah someone hurt my feelings I'm taking you to court'.

Ugh...
Why am I even responding to this...

And I'm not entirely sure that 'piss of back to where you came from' is essentially racist.
If I'm a white person and I tell another white person like an English, French or American', to go back to where they came from, is that racist?
Seems like a genuine grey area.

The important thing is not the personalities involved, but that the Federal Court interfered with an exchange beware two elected politicians UNDER PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE.

Nor is it a popularity competition between Faruqi and Hanson.

If politicians can't ‘have it out’ in Parliament with unelected judges poking their beaks in, Australia is finished, and I agree with Bushnell that Hanson should appeal to the High Court to protect freedom of speech - at least in Parliament, where elected politicians are supposed to be speaking on our behalf, one way or the other.

So, yes AC, they should be let “fight it out”. That's what we pay them to do.

Again, yes I agree that Faruqi has a massive chip on her shoulder, and she injects Palestinian propaganda into our Parliament which has nothing to do with us, or her as an Australian politician. She also accuses Australians of being “racist” in the safety of the Senate. I agree with Hanson that she seems to be so unhappy with Australia and Australians that she made a big mistake coming here. And “piss off back to Pakistan” is rude and not what is expected from one of our representatives, but it is not racist.

This bloke is as dumb as Hanson. Likes to use a bit of Goebbelism, tell a big lie, and hope everyone believes it.

"The important thing is not the personalities involved, but that the Federal Court interfered with an exchange beware two elected politicians UNDER PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE."

"Pauline Hanson did not use parliamentary privilege to attack Mehreen Faruqi. Instead, the attack occurred on the public social media platform X (formerly Twitter), leading to a civil racial discrimination lawsuit in the Federal Court of Australia."

p/s Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was 96 when she died in her sleep, was I upset, nope, did I care, nope. So what, luckier than most, lived a long and privileged life, then carked it in her sleep from old age, without pain, at aged 96. I'd say she was bloody lucky.