Kochie slams Pauline Hanson during explosive interview on Sunrise
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has denied that her comments about Muslims in Australia “empower” white supremacists.
Sunrise host David Koch told Hanson that Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto – the Australian terrorist who carried out Friday’s horrific attack – reads like a “One Nation Immigration and Muslim policy.”
“Do you, in any way, feel complicit with this atrocity?” Kochie asked.
“The anti-Muslim rhetoric that you espouse constantly here, that you did in your maiden speech when you came to parliament. Do you understand?”
In response to the Sunrise hosts statements, Hanson extended her sympathies to the victims of the Friday attacks at two Christchurch mosques, before steering the conversation towards Muslim immigration.
“I feel for these people,” she said. “I feel for the families that have lost lives ... We have problems but you’ve actually got to discuss it and debate the issues.
“Why do we have terrorist attacks in this country? Why is it happening around the world?”
Kochie responded by telling the politician that “most of the terrorist attacks are (carried out by) right-wing white supremacists that are egged on by your comments, by your anti-Muslim comments”.
“(Things like) ‘they don’t deserve to be here’, ‘they will take over our country’. Can you understand how that empowers a white supremacist ... into seeing it as a call to arms?”
Ms Hanson focused on what’s happening in the UK, claiming Britons have “lost their country.”
Later, fellow senator Derryn Hinch accused Hanson of being a “coward,” for saying on Sunrise she would abstain from a vote to censure Senator Fraser Anning over his divisive comments after Friday’s attack.
“What is a censure?” Hanson responded when asked by Kochie if she would vote or not.
“It will not prove a damn thing.”
Kochie told her the vote is “drawing a line in the sand of humanity and respect”. Senator Hinch told the One Nation leader it is “cowardly” not to vote.
“You either vote yes or no. (Not voting) shows you approve of what he said.”
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