A judge has slammed One Nation leader Pauline Hanson for decades of racist remarks, her loose relationship with the truth and a personal social media attack against a Muslim senator.

In a scathing judgment, Justice Angus Stewart found Hanson engaged in “seriously offensive” and intimidating behaviour in a September 2022 tweet that told Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.

Faruqi said on Friday the decision that her political opponent breached the Racial Discrimination Act vindicated not only herself but also those who bore the brunt of racism and “destructive racist language”.

The day of Queen Elizabeth’s death, Faruqi took to Twitter, now known as X, to offer condolences to those who knew the monarch.

But she added she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a “racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.

In a response, Hanson said she was appalled and disgusted by the comments.

“When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country,” she wrote.

“It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”

Stewart said this post was othering and exclusionary.

“It is a message that Senator Faruqi is, as an immigrant, a second-class citizen, and that she should be grateful for what she has and keep quiet,” he said in his Federal Court ruling.

The phrase “go back to where you came from” was a racist, anti-immigrant and nativist trope traceable to the White Australia Policy, Stewart noted.

Migrants and other Muslims would have been offended, insulted, humiliated and intimidated by the tweet, he said.

“It is a strong form of racism,” he said.

Federal Court Decision

Senator Hanson is deeply disappointed by today’s Federal Court judgment.

The outcome demonstrates the inappropriately broad application of section 18C, particularly in so far as it impinges upon freedom of political expression.

Given the importance of…

— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) October 31, 2024

Stewart found Hanson had a decades-long tendency to make negative, derogatory, discriminating or hateful statements against people of colour, migrants and Muslims.

He rejected the One Nation leader’s claim she did not know her Greens rival was a Muslim at the time of the tweet.

Similarly he dismissed arguments the post was a fair comment in a political discussion about alleged hypocrisy from the Greens deputy in criticising the monarchy while benefiting from life in Australia.

Hanson’s submissions that sections of the Racial Discrimination Act went against the implied constitutional right of political communication were also shot down.

Stewart said the law prevented some topics being discussed by politicians, but this limitation was only slight and served to protect the public from hatred and discrimination that could itself silence the vulnerable.

He was also highly critical of the One Nation leader as a witness, calling her generally unreliable, argumentative and unwilling to accept obvious truths.

“I was left with the distinct impression that Senator Hanson would say anything that came to mind if she thought that it would suit her at that time; she had little regard to whether what she said was true or false,” he said.

Hanson has been ordered to delete the tweet within seven days and to pay Faruqi’s legal costs of running the lawsuit.

The judge declined to make orders sought by Faruqi that Hanson pay $150,000 to a charity or undertake anti-racism training.

In a statement, Faruqi said the decision was a win for everyone who had been told to go back to where they came from.

“Believe me, far too many of us have been subjected to this ultimate racist slur far too many times in this country,” she said.

She said the judgment set a precedent for how racism would be viewed in Australia, saying it was about time Hanson faced consequences for her comments.

In a post on X after the judgment, a “deeply disappointed” Hanson said she would appeal.

-with AAP