{"id":491861,"date":"2026-02-20T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491861\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:00:11","slug":"federal-police-received-reports-of-a-crime-in-relation-to-pauline-hansons-comments-about-muslims-pauline-hanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491861\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal police \u2018received reports of a crime\u2019 in relation to Pauline Hanson\u2019s comments about Muslims | Pauline Hanson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal police say they have \u201creceived reports of a crime\u201d in relation to comments made to the media by Pauline Hanson<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

But an AFP spokesperson did not say whether they had begun a criminal investigation, only that they would have more to say \u201cat an appropriate time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bilal El-Hayek, the mayor of Canterbury Bankstown in western Sydney, said on Friday that the One Nation<\/a> leader should face charges over her \u201chighly inflammatory\u201d comments about Muslims.<\/p>\n

In El-Hayek\u2019s council area more than 23% of residents are Muslim, according to the 2021 census. He told the ABC on Friday that hate speech laws were \u201cquite clear\u201d with a reference to public incitement of hatred and violence.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, discussing the thwarted attempts by Australian women and children stuck in Syria to return home<\/a>, Hanson said on Sky News: \u201cYou say, \u2018Well, there\u2019s good Muslims out there.\u2019 How can you tell me there are good Muslims?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson has not withdrawn the comments, though she has offered some further comments framed as a conditional apology. In one of the subsequent interviews she also singled out Lakemba, a suburb within Canterbury Bankstown, as somewhere people \u201cfeel unwanted\u201d and do \u201cnot want to be\u201d.<\/p>\n

El-Hayek said that \u201c[Hanson\u2019s] target was clearly the Muslim people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt that her remarks will incite someone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of Australia\u2019s largest mosques \u2013 Lakemba \u2013 on Wednesday received its third threatening letter<\/a> in a matter of weeks, ahead of the first night of prayers in Islam\u2019s holiest month<\/a>. NSW police are investigating the incident while a man has been charged over a letter sent to the mosque in January.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked whether they were investigating the comments by Hanson, a spokesperson for the Australian federal police said: \u201cthe AFP is aware of comments made during a media interview earlier this week\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFP has received reports of crime in relation to this matter. Further comment will be made at an appropriate time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson\u2019s One Nation colleague Barnaby Joyce said on Friday he was not aware of the reports to the AFP.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was worried about the AFP\u2019s statement, Joyce said: \u201cI need details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Simon Rice, a University of Sydney<\/a> law expert, said alleged hate speech can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction where the comments have been broadcasted.<\/p>\n

In NSW, it is a criminal offence to publicly threaten or incite violence<\/a> towards a person or group of people on numerous grounds, including people\u2019s religious beliefs and affiliations. Under new state laws, which came into effect last year, it is also an offence to publicly incite hatred on the grounds of race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rice said Hanson could be investigated under the NSW laws, however the alleged offences were \u201cvery difficult to prove<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor is right to call for \u2026 police to look at it \u2013 whether they [lay a] charge is a different question altogether,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said people could also take civil recourse by lodging a complaint under the federal anti-discrimination laws or state legislation. He pointed to the Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi\u2019s successful racial discrimination case<\/a> against Hanson.<\/p>\n

The One Nation leader\u2019s comments this week have been widely criticised. Joyce refused to endorse them<\/a> on Wednesday. On Friday, Joyce appeared to distance himself from his party leader\u2019s remarks, saying \u201cof course, I think there are Muslims who are very good people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said on Friday he did not agree with Hanson\u2019s recent remarks about Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always distance myself from people who think this is about anything other than protecting our life and focusing on our core values,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people want to come to our country, no matter [their] religion, [if] they don\u2019t believe what we believe then we should shut the door on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor was visiting Melbourne\u2019s Adass Israel synagogue, which was firebombed in a 2024 antisemitic attack that the domestic spy agency has linked to Iran<\/a>. Asked if Hanson should apologise for her comments, the new opposition leader said it was a matter for the One Nation senator.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government\u2019s race discrimination commissioner this week called for Hanson to apologise for her comments<\/a>, saying she was targeting Muslims and her comments would have a lasting impact.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese this week drew a link between Hanson\u2019s comments and the potential for threats of violence. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said Hanson\u2019s comments may have \u201cinflamed tensions\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Hanson offered a conditional apology if she \u201coffended anyone out there that doesn\u2019t believe in sharia law, or multiple marriages, or wants to bring ISIS brides in, or people from Gaza that believe in a caliphate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hanson has previously been criticised for demeaning Muslims when she wore a burqa in the Senate chamber<\/a> last year. She was suspended from the chamber for seven days.<\/p>\n

Hanson declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal police say they have \u201creceived reports of a crime\u201d in relation to comments made to the media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-491861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}