Lidia Thorpe apologises to Pauline Hanson over accusation she was convicted of racial vilification

Senator Lidia Thorpe has walked back her statements about One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in which she incorrectly accused the Queensland senator of having been “convicted” of racially vilifying her senate colleague Mehreen Faruqi. While Senator Hanson was found by the Federal Court to have engaged in racial discrimination after she told Senator Faraqui to “pack your bags and p*ss off back to Pakistan”, the civil proceedings didn’t result in a conviction. Following a legal threat from Senator Hanson’s lawyers calling on Senator Thorpe to “immediately and publicly’ withdraw the allegation and apologise”, the controversial politician took to X and made the post on Monday. “My comments about Hanson last week referred to the federal court ruling that found she racially vilified a senator, contravened the Racial Discrimination Act and exhibited a strong form of racism,” Senator Thorpe posted on X. “To clarify, I was mistaken that she was ‘convicted’ because it was a civil case.” In a separate comment in response to her post, she wrote: “Sorry about that Pauline!” The pair clashed heatedly on Thursday after Senator Hanson was criticised for being a “racist” after she attempted to table documents questioning the eligibility of Senator Fatima Payman’s ability to serve in the Senate due to her dual Afghan citizenship. In response, Senator Thorpe ripped up a document and threw the paper at Senator Hanson before storming out of the chamber while holding up her middle finger. In a statement made to media after the outburst, Senator Thorpe called Senator Hanson a “convicted racist” and said the Senate had allowed her to continue “her racism and violence”. The Senate stunt also resulted in Senator Thorpe being suspended from the chamber for the remaining two days of the sitting year, with Coalition, Labor, and independent senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie and Ralph Babet uniting to condemn her behaviour.