Pauline Hanson suspended from Twitter over controversial post
Pauline Hanson has been temporarily banned from Twitter after suggesting electric cattle prods should be used on climate change protesters.
Earlier this week, the One Nation leader published a video showing her holding a cattle prod and urging the Queensland government to use the tool to disperse protesters who disrupt the public.
“When the farmers have trouble getting the cattle up off the floor of the trucks, or in the cattle yards, they just touch them with this and they’ll soon move; it doesn't matter how big the beast are, they will move with this,” Hanson said in the video.
The senator went on to mention the Extinction Rebellion climate protests in Brisbane, which have led to road closures and traffic delays. “Let’s use one of these on them,” Hanson said before suggesting pitching the idea to Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
According to the Twitter suspension notice, Hanson violated the platform’s rules against abuse and harassment by engaging in “the targeted harassment of someone, or [inciting] other people to do so”.
The video has been removed from Twitter but is still available on Hanson’s Facebook page.
On Thursday, Hanson said her suspension from the social media platform was “just a concerted effort by the left to once again push for the censorship of conservative politicians and commentators”.
She said she has appealed the suspension with a statement claiming that “tasers and cattle prods were low voltage and non-lethal and only suggested their use on people who block traffic or airports”.
The suspension comes as the state government is introducing new laws to give police new powers to search suspected climate change protesters. Palaszczuk said the authorities will be able to search those “they reasonably suspect” of having devices with traps or lock-on features.
“Every single minute our [emergency services] spend dealing with these types of protesters, is a minute they are spending not helping others,” Palaszczuk said on Tuesday in state parliament. “It will not be allowed to continue.”
Earlier this month, more than 70 people were arrested and charged over climate change protests in Brisbane’s CBD for offences including breach of peace, obstruct police, obstruct traffic and contravene direction.
Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Tom Howell defended the people’s right to demonstrate on the streets.
“Every other form of dissidence has failed,” Howell told the ABC.
“We’ve had our petitions, we’ve had marches, the Government is not representing the people.
“People are uncomfortable with disrupting other people’s lives, but it is the best option we have left to get people talking about the climate emergency, to get the Government responding to it and to kind of make the economy pay attention to it, because if people can't go to work then the economy can suffer.”