A full bench of the Australian Federal Court has upheld a finding that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson engaged in racial discrimination against Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, dismissing her appeal on all seven grounds. The ruling stemmed from a tweet in which Hanson told Faruqi to "pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan".
The tweet was posted in response to Faruqi's comments following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, in which she said she could not mourn "the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples." Faruqi was present in court for the judgment; Hanson did not attend.
The appeal was rejected on every ground raised by Hanson's legal team.
The initial finding by Justice Angus Stewart had concluded that Hanson's tweet breached Australia's Racial Discrimination Act, describing it as "seriously offensive" and intimidating. Justice Stewart also found that the tweet portrayed Faruqi as a "second-class citizen" and that the phrase "piss off back to Pakistan" was a variant of the racist trope "go back to where you came from." He further noted that the tweet likely "empowered others" to make similar or worse comments. The appeal was heard by a full court comprising Justices Melissa Perry, Geoffrey Kennett, and Elizabeth Bennett, who unanimously upheld Stewart's decision.
During the appeal, Hanson sought to argue that section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act breaches the implied freedom of political communication under the Australian Constitution.
Faruqi said the win was "for every single person out there who has been told to go back to where you came from," and declared that "hate speech is not free speech." She added that the "seeds of One Nation's racism" have been allowed to grow because Labor and Liberal governments "have never stood up to it." Faruqi indicated she would be seeking costs.
Hanson said her legal team is reviewing the decision "with a view to commencing an appeal in the High Court of Australia." In a previous legal move, Hanson lost a bid to reduce the costs she was liable to pay Faruqi over the initial court case.