The One Nation leader has allied herself with men’s rights activists for years, consistently suggesting women routinely make false allegations of violence
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For a decade, Pauline Hanson has been beating the same drum.
Her comments this week – suggesting domestic violence was a “two-way street” and questioning why women did not simply leave abusive relationships – have caused significant concern and been labelled “dangerous” by experts and other commentators.
But they are not, as they’ve been portrayed, another “gaffe” by the stumbling One Nation leader as she attempts to stabilise her party’s polls that show it might become a new electoral force in Australia.
The comments make plain something that has been a driving force for the populist leader since her return to parliament in 2016.
One Nation’s political ascendancy in recent months has been built on replicating anti-immigrant and hard right pivots in the United States and the UK. Hanson’s own second coming was built on an allyship with groups of anti-feminist men and heavily influenced by domestic violence allegations against her son, Adam Hanson, which she says were false.
In 2019, Hanson used parliamentary privilege to call her former daughter-in-law “nasty” and accuse her of making false claims about her son. She has consistently – inside and outside parliament – made claims, rejected by experts and evidence, that suggest women routinely make false...
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