‘Out of her league’: PM defends mum after Hanson attack
The prime minister has mounted an emotional defence of his late mother after “nasty” comments from Pauline Hanson resurfaced, in which the One Nation leader criticised her long social housing tenure.
Source: Anthony Albanese
One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce has refused to apologise for Pauline Hanson’s criticism of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s mother living in public housing “for 65 years”.
Joyce was repeatedly asked on Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Monday if Hanson should say sorry now that it has been revealed that Albanese’s mother was “crippled”.
“The poor woman was basically crippled for most of her life. Do you now think that Pauline Hanson, on that topic, should apologise?” host Natalie Barr asked Joyce.
But Joyce dug in his heels and said Hanson was specifically commenting on public housing and not Mary Albanese’s character.
Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, also on Sunrise, said Mary Albanese could barely open a jar to feed herself or do up her buttons and Albanese cared for his mother — and “that’s what made him”.
In contrast, she said Joyce was sent to a fancy private school and had other people looking after him.
Albanese on Sunday said he was “stunned” to learn Hanson had criticised his mother for living in social housing for several decades.
Albanese has publicly referred to his experience of growing up in public housing in inner-city Sydney with a single mother as being a motivation for his political career and vision as Labor leader.
“I’ll make this point: If Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me, then that’s fine,” he said in Sydney.
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“But my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson’s league, way out of it.
“I said during the last campaign, kindness isn’t weakness. Tell you what’s weakness: Nastiness and spitefulness.”
Hanson made the remarks during an interview with podcaster Karl Stefanovic in January. They resurfaced at the weekend after an article in The Australian.
“Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 [years] – and he (Anthony Albanese) said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years,” Hanson told Stefanovic.
“Sorry, that is not on, to me.
“It should be limited time, you have been given a hand up, move it on to the next ones coming through.”
Albanese said he was “proud to be a houso” and of his mum, who “had a tough life”.
“She didn’t associate with billionaires. She was someone who, as has been documented, went overseas, came back to Australia, chose to make a courageous decision in 1963 to keep a child out of wedlock, who is now the Prime Minister of Australia,” Albanese said.
“She was compassionate, not uncaring. She was generous, not mean. And she was kind, not nasty. She was a person of great character.
“She’s someone, after I was born, worked cleaning offices overnight in the city in order to get an income, and then caring for me, her new baby during the day.
“She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was crippled up. She was unable for a long while to be able to use a knife and fork … she used to come down the stairs at our house on her bum because she couldn’t stand up fully in the morning.
“She was a battler, and for Pauline Hanson to attack someone and their character who died in 2002, some 24 years ago, at age just 65, because she did have such a tough life with her health from an early age. She had scarlet fever as a child, so it meant she couldn’t conclude her schooling.
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Trade Minister Don Farrell labelled Hanson’s comments “appalling”.
“I think Ms Hanson should apologise,” he said.
“She wants dignity and respect from her fellow parliamentarians. Attacking the Prime Minister’s mother like this is not a way to get respect and dignity from your colleagues.”
Hanson has also faced fierce criticism from Liberal MP Andrew Hastie over a One Nation cartoon that branded him a traitor. On Sunday, he joined his political opponents in denouncing her for the latest remarks.
The Western Australian MP said Hanson should “leave mums out of it”, adding the comments about Albanese’s late mother were another sign she was unfit to lead.
He accused Hanson of failing to take responsibility for her actions and hiding behind “childish” material in reference to the satirical cartoon.
“She’s revealed in the last week that she doesn’t have what it takes to be prime minister of this country,” Hastie told News24.
“When I put the pressure on her over the cartoon … she showed herself to be rattled.
“If she were to be prime minister, is she going to run cartoons about all her political opponents? How is she going to devote her time?
“Is she serious? Does she have a worldview that we can actually understand? These are all legitimate questions for One Nation.”
Hanson has brushed off complaints about the “traitor” comments in the cartoon, saying it shouldn’t be taken too seriously despite attracting criticism from across the political spectrum.
Her office was contacted for comment about the latest criticism.
Hastie has been attacked by One Nation for testifying during the defamation trial of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, both of whom served in the elite Special Air Service Regiment in Afghanistan.
The Victoria Cross recipient has been charged over five alleged murders involving unarmed detainees during his deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Roberts-Smith denies the allegations.
Displaying a photo of an Australian prisoner of war being beheaded by Japanese forces during the Second World War, Hastie said Hanson must clarify whether she believed it was acceptable to execute prisoners.
“She’s got to come out and make her position very clear,” he said.
“What’s her standard for battlefield conduct?”
-with AAP
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