Brittany Higgins’ husband David Sharaz is expected to be interviewed by police over a protest stunt that interrupted Pauline Hanson’s big moment at the National Press Club.

The One Nation leader was giving her first address to the press club on Wednesday when a was banner was unfurled behind her.

The poster accused Hanson of accepting a $100,000 pay rise while opposing wage increases for workers and showed her surrounded by winged bundles of cash and wearing eight-bit sunglasses — a staple of online “thug life” memes.

GetUp! has claimed responsibility for the stunt and the National Press Club said David Sharaz was the campaign group’s representative at the address.

“At time of writing, we understand he is yet to be interviewed by the AFP,” said a statement from National Press Club of Australia chief executive Maurice Reilly.

“It appears that two persons entered the club building yesterday afternoon without permission and installed a separate drop-down screen in front of our media wall/ light box.

“It is evident that a further person present during the address activated a remote device to trigger the unfurling of the coiled banner.

“David Sharaz was seen filming the incident on his phone and, after the
banner had lowered, left abruptly.

“We understand that this is likely to form part of the AFP investigation.”

The press club said it would consider its legal options against the perpetrators including recovering costs for the “significant damage” to the media wall/ light box.

“The Club sincerely apologises to Senator Hanson for the incident.”

Hanson, meanwhile, was making hay out of the incident on Thursday, declaring she “quite liked” a left-wing campaign group’s depiction of her in pixelated meme sunglasses.

“I quite liked the glasses GetUp! gave me in their new poster,” she said in a post online, setting the image as her new profile picture on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Government and opposition frontbenchers have expressed concern about the stunt, with Coalition figures arguing it will likely improve Hanson’s political fortunes.

Nationals frontbencher Kevin Hogan said the move had “completely backfired” on the progressive campaign group.

“(It) makes them look like dills, and makes her look like a victim in the sense that she’s being picked on, and that never works,” he told ABC Radio.

The stunt was “counterproductive”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Thursday, while accusing some newspapers of giving One Nation free publicity.

“We need to turn the temperature down … people should be allowed to address the Press Club with whatever views people have in a respectful manner,” he said.

ACT Policing confirmed it received a complaint over the “alleged unauthorised access and interference with equipment” and said AFP was investigating.

In her lengthy speech on Wednesday, Hanson said Australia needed to become a “monoculture”, taking aim at radical Islam and transgender ideology, along with media outlets that she claimed treated her unfairly.

Her party clarified that migrants would still be free to speak their own languages at home if it were to win government, but they would need to be Australians first and put their ethnicity or creed second.

“They can be an Australian migrant, or an Australian-Italian, Australian-Greek, or an Australian-African. They’re not African-Australians, they’re Australians first,” One Nation MP David Farley told ABC Radio on Thursday.

“There’ll be times when they’re bringing family and friends into the country on holidays etcetera, where that is adaptable … but the reality is we’ve adapted English as a language, that’s the Australian language,” he said.

Australia’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik said Senator Hanson’s comments, which included a fiery critique of “radical Islam”, were opportunistic and fear-mongering.

“Australia is multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-faith. It’s a rich dynamic culture in which people speak many different languages,” he told ABC Radio.

“That’s a dystopian vision that she has of Australia.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns warned against importing US-style politics into Australia and said the drive towards personal attacks and endless fights was counterproductive.

Hanson’s rise in the polls was a reflection of working people feeling they were being economically left behind, YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said.

“Our polling shows that the number one reason for backing One Nation is not the leader, but the feeling of being unrepresented by the two major parties,” he told AAP.

“For One Nation to win and keep the votes they have, they need to address the economic problems faced by working people about wages, housing, and generally being on their side of the economy.”

A number of opinion polls have shown One Nation now leads political parties as Australians’ first choice, while support for the Coalition has plunged to record lows.

-with AAP