{"id":782572,"date":"2026-07-06T12:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782572\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T12:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:03:13","slug":"socceroos-star-awer-mabil-slams-pauline-hansons-monoculture-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/782572\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos star Awer Mabil slams Pauline Hanson\u2019s monoculture comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos star Awer Mabil has hit out at One Nation<\/a> leader Pauline Hanson\u2019s<\/a> comments on monoculture, calling them \u201cbullshit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mabil, who scored a penalty in the Socceroos\u2019 penalty shootout defeat to Egypt<\/a> on Saturday, has spoken in favour of the diversity and multiculturalism of the Australia<\/a> team that played at the tournament. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mabil scored a penalty as Australia fell to a heartbreaking shootout defeat to Egypt.\u00a0Gareth Patterson<\/p>\n

Mabil himself is a refugee born in a Kenyan camp to South Sudanese parents.<\/p>\n

Several of Mabil\u2019s Socceroos teammates, including star Nestory Irankunda and striker Mohamed Toure, are also of African descent.<\/p>\n

He returned home from the World Cup<\/a> to Adelaide on Monday and was asked about recent comments by Hanson, who advocated for Australia to move towards a monocultural society.<\/p>\n

At her maiden speech<\/a> at the National Press Club last month, Hanson had said Australia needed to become \u201cmonocultural\u201d, which she said meant \u201c[living] under the one cultural umbrella\u201d.<\/p>\n

After criticism, Hanson tried to defend her point claiming the Socceroos were an example of the monoculture she was arguing for, simply because they all played in the green and gold uniform.<\/p>\n

After being asked about it on Monday, Mabil gave a withering critique of Hanson\u2019s views, saying such beliefs were unpatriotic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just all bullshit,\u201d he told reporters, after first asking if it was alright to swear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone is trying to divide that, then they\u2019re probably not Australian themselves in a sense, respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was critical of the idea of creating division within society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody tries to divide people based on certain things, because you don\u2019t pick where you\u2019re born, the colour of your skin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou pick to be a good human being; yes, that\u2019s a choice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mabil, left and Nestory Irankunda are both refugees of African descent.\u00a0Julio Cortez<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people, they choose to go against being good, that\u2019s their own problem. They\u2019re missing out on what others can bring and that\u2019s what multicultural does, it brings other flavour to the table instead of just one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mabil insisted Hanson\u2019s remarks, which came during the World Cup campaign, did not distract the Australian team, who made the knockout rounds for the third time in their World Cup history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t really distract us because we know what we represent, we represent Australia on the biggest stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hanson and her party have shot to the top of several opinion polls<\/a> in recent weeks, and recently won their first federal seat in parliament in Farrer<\/a>, but Hanson\u2019s comments saw her popularity take a hit<\/a> and fall from top spot in some polls.<\/p>\n

Her comments were also met with criticism<\/a> by icon Paul Hogan, who Hanson attempted to hold up as an example of what good could come from a monocultural Australia.<\/p>\n

Hogan disagreed entirely, calling Hanson \u201ca pelican\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s living in the past, obviously,\u201d he told The Australian Financial Review.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had a very simple rule: what makes a good Australian is wanting to be one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine.com.au<\/a> understands Hanson is currently travelling to the United Kingdom, where she will attend the CPAC Great Britain conference between July 16 and 18.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One Nation’s standing in the polls has taken a hit after Hanson’s comments at the National Press Club.\u00a0Hilary Wardhaugh<\/p>\n

The conference is an offshoot of the influential conservative political conference, where former UK prime minister Liz Truss and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are set to speak.<\/p>\n

The Australian Financial Review<\/a> reports Hanson will make a speech at the conference, but she is not listed as a speaker on the conference\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Hanson is also set to meet with Farage, who has led his party to the top of the polls in the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socceroos star Awer Mabil has hit out at One Nation leader Pauline Hanson\u2019s comments on monoculture, calling them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-782572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782572","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=782572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}