{"id":821445,"date":"2026-07-24T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821445\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T19:02:11","slug":"pauline-hansons-domestic-violence-comments-were-no-stumble-pauline-hanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821445\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson\u2019s domestic violence comments were no stumble | Pauline Hanson"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a decade, Pauline Hanson<\/a> has been beating the same drum.<\/p>\n

Her comments this week \u2013 suggesting domestic violence was a \u201ctwo-way street\u201d <\/a>and questioning why women did not simply leave abusive relationships \u2013 have caused significant concern and been labelled \u201cdangerous\u201d <\/a>by experts and other commentators.<\/p>\n

But they are not, as they\u2019ve been portrayed, another \u201cgaffe\u201d by the stumbling One Nation leader as she attempts to stabilise her party\u2019s polls<\/a> that show it might become a new electoral force in Australia.<\/p>\n

The comments make plain something that has been a driving force for the populist leader since her return to parliament in 2016.<\/p>\n

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

One Nation\u2019s political ascendancy in recent months has been built on replicating anti-immigrant and hard right pivots in the United States and the UK. Hanson\u2019s own second coming was built on an allyship with groups of anti-feminist men and heavily influenced by domestic violence allegations against her son, Adam Hanson, which she says were false.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Hanson used parliamentary privilege to call her former daughter-in-law \u201cnasty\u201d and accuse her of making false claims about her son. She has consistently \u2013 inside and outside parliament \u2013 made claims, rejected by experts and evidence, that suggest women routinely make false allegations of violence for advantage in the family law system.<\/p>\n

Speaking in 2017, on domestic violence orders, Hanson said: \u201cWomen, mostly women, are going around throwing them around left, right and centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021 on Sky News, Hanson said: \u201cThere are men who have been accused of these things that didn\u2019t, it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows you how lies and perjury are leading to the failure of Australia\u2019s family law system and contributing to the death of 21 men by suicide and the murder of one woman each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201c21 men\u201d figure has been repeatedly cited by Hanson, her colleague Malcolm Roberts, and others in One Nation as a campaigning point. The figure comes from a men\u2019s rights organisation, the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers (ABF), and has been debunked by factcheckers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ABF have been among Hanson\u2019s biggest cheerleaders since her re-election. Roberts has been particularly close to the group, visiting several times, and recording a special video message for a gathering.<\/p>\n

One of the first things Roberts did after a federal parliament hearing in 2019 \u2013 when he claimed without evidence there were \u201cmany instances\u201d of women making up domestic violence allegations<\/a> \u2013 was to phone the ABF\u2019s founder, Leith Erikson.<\/p>\n

The ABF has claimed in Facebook posts to have received donations from One Nation, and the political party has held community barbecues<\/a> in support of the men\u2019s group.<\/p>\n

The trope that women fabricate violence claims against men is a common grievance of men\u2019s rights groups, but experts say<\/a> there is no evidence to support this.<\/p>\n

Growing political influence<\/p>\n

After the 2019 election, Hanson\u2019s return to the senate became more than a political curiosity. The Morrison government, four seats short of a senate majority, suddenly needed her support to pass legislation.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s sop to Hanson was to accede to her request for a family law inquiry, and to make her the deputy chair (she introduced herself at hearings as the \u201cco-chair\u201d). <\/p>\n

It is particularly instructive, for all those playing along at home and wondering what One Nation might do with newfound political influence, to understand that the last time Hanson was in a position to ask for something, she chose an inquiry that became a formal platform for misogynists and groups pushing unsupported claims that the system is loaded against men.<\/p>\n

Hanson livestreamed the hearings to her Facebook page. Commenters called expert witnesses and MPs things like \u201cman-hater\u201d and \u201cdirty snake\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hearings in March 2020 took place less than a month after the murders of Hannah Clarke and her children<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When an expert witness, the Griffith University law professor Zoe Rathus, mentioned the case, Hanson responded:<\/p>\n

\u201cI totally agree that what happened to Hannah and her children was horrendous and should never happen. But it\u2019s on both sides. I have read your report, and it\u2019s all about women. Do you agree that there are men who are aggrieved, men who face domestic violence, men who are taking their own lives?<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you admit that there are men facing domestic violence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rathus responded: \u201cI would prefer if you didn\u2019t ask me whether I \u2018admit\u2019 things. I\u2019m not really here to admit things. I\u2019m here to present my research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statistics are very clear that domestic violence is something that is very gendered and that violence in the home happens more often by men towards women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanson carried on undeterred.<\/p>\n

Her comments this week, in the shadow of four more alleged domestic violence homicides<\/a>, have understandably triggered more backlash because of One Nation\u2019s political ascendancy.<\/p>\n

As a fringe politician needing only to win a senate quota every six years, Hanson\u2019s views only needed to appeal to a small, angry cohort.<\/p>\n

The common wisdom is that as One Nation heads for the mainstream \u2013 its founder will need to temper her more extreme ideas to keep her coalition of disengaged and aggrieved voters together.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not Pauline Hanson.<\/p>\n

Ben Smee is Guardian Australia\u2019s Queensland state correspondent<\/p>\n

In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling <\/a>is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a decade, Pauline Hanson has been beating the same drum. Her comments this week \u2013 suggesting domestic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-821445","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\/821445","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=821445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}