Paul Hogan has reportedly called Pauline Hanson a ‘pelican’. Please explain?

In one swift rhetorical blow, Crocodile Dundee has disarmed Pauline Hanson’s latest attack on multiculturalism. But his weapon of choice has left some scratching their heads. Australian politics has spent a week recovering from the rightwing One Nation leader’s attempt to explain her controversial concept of “Australian monoculture”, first introduced at this month’s National Press Club address . On Wednesday, in a Senate speech, the One Nation leader said: “Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston. These are the essential features of Australian monoculture, and there’s nothing remotely exclusionary about them.” In response, Crocodile Dundee star Hogan, tracked down by the Australian Financial Review to Venice Beach, California, reached for a bird metaphor. “She’s a pelican, yeah,” he reportedly said (adding that Hanson “sounds very much like this stupid boofhead over here, Trump”). A what? A pelican? Is that … an insult? Hogan’s role in the Australian vernacular is contested. The 86-year-old national treasure is yet to fully recover from urging Americans to “throw another shrimp on the barbie”. But he’s a deep well of Australian slang, and is credited by academics for giving “G’day” international prominence . Fair dinkum. So going back to “pelican”, what does he mean exactly? Well, Hogan has prior form. …