Hundreds of university students marched through Australian cities on Thursday to protest Pauline Hanson and the growing support for her One Nation party.
At a rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park, demonstrators held placards and chanted anti-Hanson slogans, including: “When I say Pauline, you say f*** off.”
The students also chanted: “Pauline Hanson go to hell, take your racists there as well.”
Jasmine Al-Rawi, an organiser of the protest, told the Daily Telegraph that the demonstrations were driven by concern over Hanson’s recent polling gains and her growing presence in mainstream political debate.
“I think it’s the fact that Pauline Hanson’s polling has gone up so much and has been kind of parachuted into the mainstream in the media, in politics, and people are not happy with that,” she said.
Al-Rawi said protesters were particularly worried about what they described as Hanson’s “racist vision of society”.
At a separate protest in Melbourne, an attendee wearing a furry animal head accused Hanson of unfairly targeting minority groups and cautioned against her expanding political influence.
“I don’t think I want to live in a country where, you know, we have people like Pauline Hanson who are trying to, you know, be in our government,” they told News24.
Students in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney were among those who protested against Pauline Hanson on Thursday
A protester wearing a furry head, pictured, criticised Hanson and accused her of targeting minority groups
Students could be heard chanting: “Pauline Hanson go to hell, take your racists there as well.”
“It’s not really fair for, you know, the people who have lived here for so many years. It’s just not fair… You’re trying to single out an entire group of people.”
Speakers at the Melbourne protest, including organiser Jules Arpula, said One Nation’s rise represented a broader political project that went beyond Victoria.
“The entire political project, it’s almost like you can’t just look at it in terms of Victoria,” they said.
“They’ve been building a vitriolic, hard, far-right racist base, and then they’re being able to win bigger votes because of that.”
Arpula argued the party’s growing support needed to be challenged.
‘We think that this needs to be absolutely brought to a halt. We need to throw a hammer into the gears of their political project, and so we want to fight back on every front,’ they said.
Arpula also criticised comments made by Victorian Premier Ben Carroll following student protests earlier this year.
At the time, Carroll urged students to remain in the classroom, saying, ‘If you want to change the world, stay at school, focus on what you’re learning in the classroom.’
The protests follow a series of national demonstrations against Hanson in August
‘I understand they’re angry with the sentiment and the policies of One Nation,’ Carroll said.
‘But the best way to change your future in the world is to get an education and to stay in school.’
Arpula said students should reject that advice.
‘For students that means striking from school, that means defying Ben Carroll when he says that the best thing that we can do for society is to stay in school.’
‘We think that’s bulls***. We think that’s condescending.’
The demonstrations, which also took place in Brisbane, were the latest in a series of anti-One Nation protests after similar rallies were held in August.
The nationwide ‘Say No to Pauline Hanson’ events, which were attended by thousands of students who walked out of classrooms and lecture theatres, took place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Wollongong, and Newcastle.
In a video shared on social media at the time, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi signed a ‘permission slip’ for students to leave school and attend the rally.
Hanson, in response to the action, blamed left-wing teachers for encouraging the students to protest.
‘Schools should teach young Australians how to think, not what to think,’ she said.
‘If you want to protest something, protest why your parents’ wages are going backwards and the cost of everything is going up.
‘The Labor Greens government is selling out your future, and you’ll inherit a weaker, poorer and less safe country.’
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce also lashed out.
‘They have been told to hate this country… because it’s not on the students’ own volition… they’ve been advised by a clique of people who have a political purpose,’ he said.
