Pauline Hanson says Australia ‘must be monocultural’ in National Press Club speech

Pauline Hanson has declared Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society”, warning high migration had caused the country to lose its identity and national values. In an inflammatory address to the National Press Club in Canberra, the One Nation leader pledged to axe SBS and overhaul the ABC if she wins the next federal election , including imposing a licence fee for metropolitan households to watch the public broadcaster. Regional services would be protected. In her first ever address to the club after 30 years in Australian politics , Hanson said western values were under siege, and governments were too “frightened” to crack down on Islamic extremism, including hate preachers in Sydney mosques. “We turn a blind eye,” she said. “Why? Because we are frightened.” Calling for a slashing of migration to help address the housing crisis, the Queensland senator sought to claim the mantle of a mainstream national leader, better in touch with voters’ concerns than Labor and the Coalition. “We cannot be a multicultural society,” she told the packed club. “We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural. Australians must live under the one cultural umbrella.” Hanson also made a broadside attack on transgender rights, pledging to sack Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner and claiming “almost every instrument of government [is] dedicated to a transgender ideology which seeks to redefine humanity”. …