{"id":742230,"date":"2026-06-17T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/742230\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:29:10","slug":"afp-investigates-banner-stunt-during-pauline-hansons-national-press-club-speech-pauline-hanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/742230\/","title":{"rendered":"AFP investigates banner stunt during Pauline Hanson\u2019s National Press Club speech | Pauline Hanson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian federal police<\/a> is investigating a protest incident during Pauline Hanson\u2019s speech at the National Press Club after political activist group GetUp claimed responsibility for the stunt.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the National Press Club said it had referred the incident to police after concluding none of its own staff were involved.<\/p>\n

About 20 minutes into Hanson\u2019s inflammatory address on Wednesday<\/a>, a banner was unfurled behind her.<\/p>\n

The banner included an edited black-and-white picture of her with the words: \u201cI opposed a pay rise for workers, while I took a $100,000 pay rise for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaulinePauline Hanson says Australia must be \u2018monocultural\u2019 in Press Club address \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has confirmed ACT policing has received the complaint about the \u201calleged unauthorised access and interference with equipment at a building at Barton\u201d and were onsite on Wednesday afternoon for forensic testing.<\/p>\n

The press club said it appeared \u201ctwo persons entered the club building yesterday afternoon without permission and installed a separate drop-down screen in front of our media wall\/light box\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is evident that a further person present during the address activated a remote device to trigger the unfurling of the coiled banner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

GetUp sent an email at 1.57pm with the subject line \u201cHanson NPC Address: It Was Us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s chief executive, Paul Ferris, said the stunt was to draw attention to her voting record on measures to support cost of living.<\/p>\n

\u201cPauline Hanson has built her entire brand on being for the battlers. But her record tells a different story. One Nation has consistently opposed wage rises, affordable childcare, increases to the aged pension, and housing affordability measures,\u201d Ferris\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought the occasion deserved some honesty. So we provided it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press club said David Sharaz, a former journalist who now works for GetUp, was at the event and was \u201cseen filming the incident on his phone\u201d. Sharaz is also Brittany Higgins\u2019 husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the banner had lowered, [Sharaz] left abruptly,\u201d the press club\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that this is likely to form part of the AFP investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the investigation has concluded, the club will consider its legal options against the perpetrators including recovering costs for the significant damage to the media wall\/light box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press club said it understood Sharaz had not yet been interviewed by the AFP. Guardian Australia has contacted Sharaz for a response.<\/p>\n

During the event, the press club\u2019s chief executive, Maurice Reilly, walked on to the stage and removed the banner with another staff member.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing stunts, all right \u2026 we\u2019re at the press club,\u201d Reilly could be heard saying.<\/p>\n

The Nationals turned One Nation<\/a> MP Barnaby Joyce alleged the incident could have been an \u201cinside job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they find the person. Someone obviously knows how to operate it. It\u2019s an inside job,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n

The press club said the stunt was undertaken by \u201cthird parties\u201d and extended an apology to Hanson.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo club personnel or club contractors had any involvement in this matter,\u201d the press club\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian federal police is investigating a protest incident during Pauline Hanson\u2019s speech at the National Press Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-742230","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\/742230","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=742230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}