Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has applied to the Federal Court to reopen her case to tender “fresh evidence” against Pauline Hanson over an allegedly discriminatory tweet telling her to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
Justice Angus Stewart reserved his decision on May 2 in the racial discrimination case brought by the deputy leader of the Greens against the One Nation leader.
However,the court had heard there was a possibility Faruqi would apply to reopen her case to tender evidence relating to Hanson’s claim in court that she did not know at the time of her tweet on September 9,2022,that Faruqi was a Muslim.
“Now I know. At the time I did the tweet it was irrelevant,” the One Nation senator said in court.
Faruqi’s barrister,Saul Holt,KC,put to Hanson during the hearing last month that she was lying. Hanson rejected that suggestion.
In an application filed this week,Faruqi has asked the court for leave to reopen her case to tender fresh evidence relating to that claim. A date has yet to be set for hearing that application.
An affidavit filed in support of Faruqi’s application points to a series of references to Faruqi’s faith before Hanson’s tweet,including a July 2020 podcast,Paul Murray Live,in which Hanson joined Murray and former senator Cory Bernardi.
During the podcast,Bernardi said Faruqi was “from Pakistani origins,Muslim woman who I don’t think has given a speech that doesn’t say about how racist Australia is,how terrible it is,how misogynistic it is,how Islamophobic it is,everything that’s wrong with it”.
Faruqi had also tweeted at Hanson in 2018:“I’m curious. @PaulineHansonOz am I a good Muslim or a bad one? #auspol?”
Faruqi’s barristers said in written submissions that the evidence was not fresh “in the sense that it has only recently come into existence” but was “‘fresh’ in the sense of its relevance and significance to the proceeding”,because it only became relevant after Hanson’s evidence in court.
The court has heard Hanson’s comment on X,then Twitter,was a response to a post by the Greens senator,who had noted and said she could not “mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives,land and wealth of colonised peoples”.
Hanson posted in reply:“When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country ... It’s clear you’re not happy,so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.”
Faruqi alleges Hanson’s post under the Racial Discrimination Act because the comment was reasonably likely to offend,insult,humiliate or intimidate,and it was done because of her race,colour or national or ethnic origin.
But Hanson’s legal team argue the comment because she acted reasonably and in good faith in making a fair comment on a matter of public interest,and it was an “expression of a genuine belief”.
Hanson has also argued the Racial Discrimination Act provisions fall foul of the implied freedom of political communication in the Commonwealth Constitution,and were invalid in full or in part.
The Commonwealth attorney-general intervened in the case and has defended the constitutional validity of the provisions.