Pauline Hanson has criticised ABC host Patricia Karvelas after comments made during the broadcaster’s election coverage following One Nation’s win in the NSW seat of Farrer.
Speaking on the ABC’s election night coverage, Karvelas said preference decisions by the Coalition could help “legitimise” One Nation if the party secured its first federal lower house seat.
“Here we’ve had (Opposition Leader) Angus Taylor make a deliberate decision to preference One Nation above the independent, which tonight could really be one of the reasons they get across the line,” she said.
“We’ll see how the votes come through but that will be key, and that will legitimise them. I used the term earlier on in the broadcast the permission structure — if they are able to win their first lower house seat, that begins the process of legitimising them, and in other electorates where they may run, voters thinking well it’s happened before, it’s normal now, you start normalising something …”
One Nation candidate David Farley went on to win the by-election, defeating independent Michelle Milthorpe and Coalition candidates Raissa Butkowski and Brad Robertson.
The result ended the Coalition’s 77-year hold on Farrer, which stretches across south-western New South Wales and includes Albury, Griffith, Leeton, Deniliquin and Wentworth.
The victory gives One Nation its first federal lower house seat and follows strong results in the South Australian state election earlier this year.
Hanson responded on social media on Sunday, accusing the national broadcaster of questioning the party’s legitimacy.
“One Nation won the seat of Farrer with close to 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote in a democratic election,” she wrote.
“Last night the ABC, our $1 billion-a-year taxpayer-funded national broadcaster, implied that One Nation was an illegitimate political party.
“This morning on Insiders the ABC allowed commentators to declare One Nation was ‘at its core’ ‘a racist and bigoted’ party.
“The ‘impartial’ ABC failed to challenge or even debate the claim.
“Other supposedly ‘impartial’ media outlets have published similar articles, dismissing and demonising the millions of Australians who have said they would vote for One Nation.
“These people don’t get it. We live in a democracy.
“Labor, Liberal, the media, the academics and the lobbyists don’t get to decide who represents Australian people.
“No one except the people of Australia get to decide who is ‘legitimate’ and worthy of representing them in Parliament. On Saturday, the people of Farrer chose One Nation.”
Speaking later to Sky News, Hanson said she was stunned by the reaction to the result.
“This is what I’m saying, it’s the sheer arrogance,” she said.
“Like we don’t have any right to be on the political scene. Well, what the hell? Isn’t this a democracy? Don’t you put your policies forward and what you want to do for the country?
“Isn’t it up to the people or are we a third-world country, we have no right to go out there and express what we want to do for the country?
“This way they’ll lose. I’m telling you, this sheer arrogance from both sides, that’s why they’ll lose. People want down-to-earth, commonsense people who are really there to fight for them. That’s what it’s about.”
Karvelas later wrote in an ABC opinion piece that One Nation’s victory came at a significant political moment.
“While One Nation was humiliating the Liberal and National parties, back in the mother country, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was smashing the Labour Party,” she wrote.
“For years, Pauline Hanson has had her eyes on the prize of a lower house seat in the federal parliament.
“When she recruited former Nationals leader and deputy PM Barnaby Joyce to her ranks, it gave her a psychological edge that has proved to be a political game-changer.”
Farley described the result as a major milestone for the party while speaking to supporters in Albury after the win.
“We’re going through the ceiling,” he said, describing the victory as his “biggest achievement” and the “most euphoric experience” he has had.
Image: ABC
