Pauline Hanson has apologised to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over remarks about his late mother’s long-term public housing tenancy, after facing criticism for comments made in a television interview.
The One Nation leader also apologised for describing Aboriginal Australians as “the most primitive race on earth” during a separate podcast interview last year.
Hanson addressed both controversies on Tuesday, having been accused of avoiding cameras after her comments about Maryanne Albanese resurfaced last week.
Asked whether she regretted criticising the Prime Minister’s mother, Hanson initially defended her remarks, saying: “I raised a comment with regards to housing commission. My comments weren’t distasteful towards Anthony Albanese’s mother at all.”
Pressed a second time, she said: “I was referring to housing commission at that time, so if he’s taken offence to it, well, I’m sorry for that.”
Hanson’s original comments were made on The Karl Stefanovic Show in January. She criticised Mr Albanese’s account of growing up in social housing and objected to his mother having lived in the same property for decades.
“Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 (years) – and he said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years,” she said.
Hanson added: “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.”
Mr Albanese responded on Sunday with a passionate defence of his mother, who raised him as a single parent while living with serious health problems.
“Firstly, she made comments about me complaining about growing up in public housing. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “I’m proud of the community in which I grew up. I’m also proud of my mother.”
He said she had made the “courageous decision in 1963 to keep a child out of wedlock, who is now the Prime Minister of Australia”, and described her as “compassionate, not uncaring” and “a person of great character”.
Mr Albanese also recalled how his mother worked overnight cleaning offices in Sydney while raising him during the day despite debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.
In the separate podcast interview, Hanson was asked whether she would apologise for using the word “primitive” when discussing Aboriginal Australians.
“If I’ve offended people by using that, yes, I will apologise for that,” she said.
Hanson had made the remark while arguing that schools were placing too much emphasis on Indigenous studies and questioning the value of teaching Aboriginal culture and language.
She claimed that Aboriginal Australians had contributed little to Australia despite having lived on the continent for 60,000 years, saying: “You know, supposedly 60,000 years, they’d never invented the wheel. There was nothing there.”
After apologising, Hanson said she would not “back away from what needs to be discussed” and called for Australians to be treated equally “on a needs basis, not about race”.
