The Court declares that:
1. The conduct of the respondent in publishing a tweet on the messaging platform then known as Twitter under the handle @PaulineHansonOz at 4.05pm on 9 September 2022 in terms that included telling the applicant to “piss off back to Pakistan”:
(a) is unlawful under s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) in that it:
(i) was reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate the applicant and groups of people, namely people of colour who are migrants to Australia or are Australians of relatively recent migrant heritage and Muslims who are people of colour in Australia;
(ii) was done by the respondent because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the applicant; and
(b) is not exempted under s 18D(c)(ii) as it was not done reasonably and in good faith as a fair comment on a matter of public interest.
The Court orders that:
1. Within seven days of these orders, the respondent cause the tweet identified in the declaration in paragraph 1 above to be deleted from her Twitter (now X) profile under the handle @PaulineHansonOz.
2. The respondent (Senator Hanson) pay the applicant’s costs (Senator Faruqi) of the proceeding.
The outcome of the Federal Court decision sends a clear message to any person who runs the line ‘go home to your country’ where as Justice Stewart J acknowledges in his decision
“Senator Faruqi’s concise statement, in summary, asserts the following:
The relevant act was Senator Hanson’s tweet which occurred in public; it was reasonably likely that Senator Faruqi and members of the “group”, or some of them, would be offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated; and the act was done by Senator Hanson including because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of Senator Faruqi.
Justice Stewart
“Senator Faruqi was herself offended, insulted, humiliated and intimidated by the tweet, including by the insinuation that as a Muslim, migrant, woman of colour she is less entitled than other Australian citizens to live in Australia and enjoy the benefits and opportunities afforded by that citizenship; the suggestion that she does not belong in Australia and should remove herself; and because of the incitement to racial hatred by, and manifest racial hatred that is expressed in, the phrase “go back to where you came from” and variations of that phrase. “
Justice Stewart
“I have considerable doubt about whether Senator Hanson gave the wording of her tweet the thought that she said that she did in her affidavit. That is because in cross-examination she said that she immediately dictated the tweet to her staff on seeing Senator Faruqi’s tweet.’
It is inherently unbelievable, as stated by Senator Hanson, that her staff had been publishing tweets in her name for years without her having any idea that they were doing so (T163:1-4), and that she did not know that other Twitter users respond to her tweets even though she later said that her staff reported responses to her (T164:18-26).
In the end, 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. Her evidence is generally unreliable.” (emphasis added)”
This decision makes it clear to every person that racial vilification will not be tolerated. Any migrant or temporary entrant in Australia should not be subjected to racial vilification. They should also not tolerate it and where they can, take the appropriate legal action to bring the culprits to heal. The bigger message is for those who have a racial bias and that is, your plan wrong and ignorant. Defending your actions makes you look a fool.