Pauline Lee Hanson (née Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the leader of One Nation. She has been a senator for Queensland since 2016, and was the member of Parliament (MP) for the Queensland division of Oxley from 1996 to 1998.
Born in Brisbane, Hanson worked in small businesses and was a councillor of Ipswich City Council, joining the Liberal Party in 1995. She was preselected as the Liberal candidate for the division of Oxley at the 1996 federal election, but was disendorsed by the party shortly before the election for her controversial comments about Aboriginal Australians. Hanson remained on the ballot paper as the Liberal candidate, winning the election to sit as an independent, before co-founding One Nation in 1997. She was unsuccessful in her re-election attempt at the 1998 election.
Hanson unsuccessfully contested the 2001 election as the leader of One Nation, but was expelled from the party in 2002. A District Court jury found Hanson guilty of electoral fraud in 2003, but her convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal. She spent 11 weeks in jail prior to the appeal being heard. Following her release, Hanson ran in several state and federal elections, as the leader of her United Australia Party and as an independent before rejoining One Nation in 2013 and becoming leader again the following year. She was narrowly defeated at the 2015 Queensland state election, but was elected to the Senate at the 2016 election, along with three other members of the party. She was re-elected at the 2022 election.
Since 1996, Hanson has been widely characterised as radical right, far-right and right-wing populist. She has called for massive reductions in the number of migrants allowed into Australia, and has made controversial critical comments about Indigenous Australians, Asian Australians, Islam and African migrants. In 2017 and 2025, Hanson gained media attention for wearing a burqa into the Australian Senate. She was suspended from the Senate for seven days for the 2025 event.
Early life and career Hanson was born Pauline Lee Seccombe on 27 May 1954 in Woolloongabba, a suburb of Brisbane. She is the fifth of seven children and the youngest daughter of John Alfred "Jack" Seccombe and Hannorah Alousius Mary "Norah" Seccombe (née Webster). She first attended school at Buranda Girls' School, and then later Coorparoo State High School in Coorparoo which she left at age 15, shortly before her first marriage and pregnancy.
Jack and Norah Seccombe owned a fish and chip shop in Ipswich, Queensland, where Hanson and her siblings worked from a young age, preparing meals and taking orders. As she grew older, she helped keep the accounts.
In 1978, Hanson (then Pauline Zagorski) met Mark Hanson, a tradesman on Queensland's Gold Coast. They married in 1980 and established a construction business specialising in roof plumbing. Hanson ran the administrative side, while her husband handled the workforce. In 1987, the couple divorced and the company was liquidated. Hanson later bought a fish and chip shop with a new business partner, Morrie Marsden in Silkstone in Ipswich. The shop was sold upon her election to Parliament in 1996.
Entry into politics Hanson's first election to political office was in 1994, when she won a seat on the Ipswich City Council. She ran on a platform opposing extra funding for a new library that would provide free public Internet access. Hanson held the seat for 11 months before being removed in 1995 due to administrative changes.
1996 election In August 1995, she joined the Liberal Party and in 1996 was endorsed as the Liberal candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich, for the March 1996 federal election. The Labor incumbent, Les Scott, held it with an almost 15% two-party majority, making it the safest Labor seat in Queensland. Hanson was given little chance of winning the seat. However, Hanson received widespread media attention when, leading up to the election, she advocated the abolition of special government assistance for Aboriginal Australians, and she was subsequently disendorsed by the Liberal Party. Ballot papers had already been printed listing Hanson as the Liberal candidate, and the Australian Electoral Commission had closed nominations for the seat. As a result, Hanson was still listed as the Liberal candidate when votes were cast, even though Liberal leader John Howard had declared she would not be allowed to sit with the Liberals if elected.Liberal candidate Kevin Baker quits race for Charlton over lewd website . ABC News, 20 August 2013.
On election night, Hanson took a large lead on the first count and picked up enough preferences from Democrat voters to defeat Scott on the sixth count. Her victory came amid Labor's near-collapse in Queensland, which saw it reduced to only two seats in the state. Hanson won 54% of the two-candidate-preferred vote. Had she still been running as a Liberal, the 19.3-point swing would have been the largest two-party swing of the election. Since Hanson had been disendorsed, she entered Parliament as an independent.
MP for Oxley (1996–1998) Hanson gained extensive media coverage during her campaign and once she took her seat in the House. Her first speech attracted considerable attention for the views it expressed on benefits for Indigenous Australians, welfare, immigration and multiculturalism. During her term in Parliament, Hanson spoke on social and economic issues such as the need for a fairer child support scheme and concern for the emergence of the working-class poor. She also called for more accountable and effective administration of Indigenous affairs. Hanson's supporters viewed her as an ordinary person who challenged 'political correctness' as a threat to Australia's identity.
The reaction of the mainstream political parties was negative, with parliament passing a resolution (supported by all members except Graeme Campbell) condemning her views on immigration and multiculturalism. However, the prime minister at the time, John Howard, refused to censure Hanson or speak critically about her, acknowledging that her views were shared by many Australians, commenting that he saw the expression of such views as evidence that the "pall of political correctness" had been lifted in Australia, and that Australians could now "speak a little more freely and a little more openly about what they feel".
Hanson immediately labelled Howard a "strong leader" and said Australians were now free to discuss issues without "fear of being branded as a bigot or racist". Over the next few months, Hanson attracted populist anti-immigration sentiment and the attention of the Citizens' Electoral Council, the Australian League of Rights, and other right-wing groups. Then-Minister for Immigration Philip Ruddock announced a tougher government line on refugee applications, and cut the family reunion intake by 10,000, despite an election promise to maintain immigration levels. Various academic experts, business leaders and several state premiers attacked the justification offered by Ruddock, who had claimed that the reduction had been forced by continuing high unemployment. Various ethnic communities complained that this attack on multiculturalism was a cynical response to polls showing Hanson's rising popularity. Hanson claimed credit for forcing the government's hand.
Maiden speech
On 10 September 1996, Hanson gave her maiden speech to the House of Representatives, which was widely reported in the media. Opening her speech, Hanson said, "I won the seat of Oxley largely on an issue that has resulted in me being called a racist. That issue related to my comment that Aboriginals received more benefits than non-Aboriginals." Hanson then asserted that Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians", and that these immigrants "have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate". Hanson argued that "mainstream Australians" were instead subject to "a type of reverse racism ... by those who promote political correctness and those who control the various taxpayer funded 'industries' that flourish in our society servicing Aboriginals, multiculturalists and a host of other minority groups". This theme continued with the assertion that "present governments are encouraging separatism in Australia by providing opportunities, land, moneys and facilities available only to Aboriginals".
Among a series of criticisms of Aboriginal land rights, access to welfare and reconciliation, Hanson criticised the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), saying: "Anyone with a criminal record can, and does, hold a position with ATSIC". This was followed by a short series of statements on family breakdown, youth unemployment, international debt, the Family Law Act, child support, and the privatisation of Qantas and other national enterprises. The speech also included an attack on immigration and multiculturalism, a call for the return of high-tariff protectionism, and criticism of economic rationalism. Her speech was delivered uninterrupted by her fellow parliamentarians as it was the courtesy given to MPs delivering their maiden speeches.
Founding of One Nation
In February 1997, Hanson, David Oldfield and David Ettridge founded the Pauline Hanson's One Nation political party. Disenchanted rural voters attended her meetings in regional centres across Australia as she consolidated a support base for the new party. An opinion poll in May of that year indicated that the party was attracting the support of 9% of Australian voters and that its popularity was primarily at the expense of the Coalition's base.
Hanson's presence in the suburb of Dandenong, Victoria, to launch her party, was met with demonstrations on 7 July 1997, with 3,000–5,000 people rallying outside. A silent vigil and multicultural concert were organised by the Greater Dandenong City Council in response to Hanson's presence, while a demonstration was organised by an anti-racism body. The majority of attendees were of Asian origin, where an open platform attracted leaders of the Vietnamese, Chinese, East Timorese and Sri Lankan communities. Representatives from churches, local community groups, lesbian and gay and socialist organisations also attended and addressed the crowd.
In its late 1990s incarnation, One Nation called for zero net immigration, an end to multiculturalism and a "revival" of Australia's Anglo-Celtic cultural tradition which it said had been diminished, the abolition of native title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), an end to special Aboriginal funding programs, opposition to Aboriginal reconciliation which the party says will create two nations, and a review of the 1967 constitutional referendum which gave the Commonwealth power to legislate for Aborigines. The party's economic position was to support protectionism and trade retaliation, increased restrictions on foreign capital and the flow of capital overseas, and a general reversal of globalisation's influence on the Australian economy. Domestically, One Nation opposed privatisation, competition policy, and the GST, while proposing a government-subsidised people's bank to provide 2% loans to farmers, small businesses, and manufacturers. On foreign policy, One Nation called for a review of Australia's United Nations membership, a repudiation of Australia's UN treaties, an end to foreign aid, and a ban on foreigners from owning Australian land.
1998 re-election campaign