One Nation senator Pauline Hanson made a racist comment when she told a Muslim senator to pack her bags and go back to Pakistan, a judge has found.
Friday’s ruling marks a win for Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi in a Federal Court lawsuit against the One Nation leader.
Justice Angus Stewart found Hanson engaged in “seriously offensive” and intimidating behaviour through the September 2022 social media post that breached the Racial Discrimination Act.
The post was racist, nativist and anti-Muslim, the judge said.
The proceedings involved a post by Hanson on Twitter, now known as X, telling the Greens deputy to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
“It is a strong form of racism,” Stewart said on Friday.
Speaking after the ruling, Faruqi said it was a “good day”.
“Today is a good day for people of colour, for Muslims and all of us who have been working so hard to build an anti-racist society,” she said.
“And believe me, there are too many of us who have been subjected to this ultimate racist slur far too many times in this country. Today’s ruling tells us that telling someone to go back to where they came from is a strong form of racism,” she said.
Hanson’s post on X was in response to one from Faruqi on the day Queen Elizabeth II died.
Faruqi wrote she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a “racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.
Hanson’s claim that she did not know Faruqi was a Muslim when she sent the tweet was rejected by the court.
Hanson’s argument that she merely engaged in political discourse by pointing out hypocrisy from Faruqi in criticising the monarchy while benefiting from moving to and living in Australia was also shot down.
“Her tweet was an angry personal attack on Senator Faruqi,” Stewart said.
Hanson has been ordered to delete the tweet within seven days and to pay Faruqi’s legal costs of running the lawsuit.
Faruqi said the court’s ruling was an “affirmation for migrants and people of colour” that they do not have to be “grateful or quiet”.
“I will be speaking out more loudly and more strongly than ever before,” she said.
“I do hope that it emboldens individuals and communities to assert their right to live free from racism.”
The judge did not make an order proposed by Faruqi that Hanson pay an amount in damages to charity.
