Pauline Hanson has called for Monday’s protestors to stop “demonising men” after she criticised former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins for waiting two years to push for a full police investigation over her alleged rape by a government member.
The One Nation Senator described Monday’s nationwide March For Justice rallies as “anti-men”.
She went on to claim that the movement did not consider the allegations that were not true.
“Stop demonising men,” Senator Hanson said in an interview on Sky News.
“There are false allegations, there are men who have been accused of these things that didn’t, it didn’t happen.”
Lisa Wilkinson took to social media to slam Hanson, after meeting her at Canberra’s March for Justice, saying the senator should “go away”.
“Oh for Christ’s sake Pauline Hanson. How dare you,” Wilkinson wrote.
“You don’t know the first thing of the detail of Brittany Higgins’ experience. Go away and stop adding to the trauma. Seriously, GO AWAY!”
Senator Hanson also criticised Ms Higgins for waiting two years before pursuing an investigation into her rape case.
Ms Higgins did speak to police immediately after the alleged incident, but asked for the investigation to be paused on the eve of the 2019 election because she was worried about her job.
“Brittany Higgins, she had the right to go and lay those charges,’’ Senator Hanson said.
“Take it to the courts. If you’ve got a case for assault then you take it to the courts.”
Senator Hanson has previously used her parliamentary privilege to publicly accuse her son’s ex-wife of making false claims that he sexually abused his own child.
“I know this feeling because, for years, my own son faced these destructive allegations in an attempt to stop him having access to his young son,” she told the Senate in July if 2019.
“My ex-daughter-in-law claimed to police that my son was outside her home in Townsville.
“That was despite him being sick and on the Gold Coast, some 1000 kilometres away. He was forced to defend himself, at enormous expense, and was dragged through the courts.
“She also falsely alleged – a soul-crushing claim – that my son had sexually abused his boy. Again, the false claim was designed to stop him having any connection with his son. No charges were brought against my son.”
Senator Hanson went on to complain that men were being driven to suicide by family law matters.
“It shows you how lies and perjury are leading to the failure of Australia’s family law system and contributing to the death of 21 men by suicide and the murder of one woman each week,’’ she said.
“Here was this spiteful partner who thought she could prevent the father from having anything to do with their child until he was a teenager – a child who is now five years old – and she has been stopping him from seeing his son since the child was 15 months old.
“Isn’t it exceptional that, when the mother faced the same outcome she wanted to inflict on my son, she couldn’t handle the thought?”
