Pauline Hanson has been criticised for claiming she wanted to expose hypocrisy when she told a Greens senator to pack her bags and return to Pakistan.
The One Nation leader's argument was itself racist, an appeals court has heard, as she challenges findings she engaged in "seriously offensive" and intimidating behaviour toward Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi.
Senator Hanson says her tweeted remarks in September 2022 were aimed at highlighting the hypocrisy of the Greens deputy leader who complained about Australia while still receiving benefits from the country in being an elected official.
She has challenged findings she engaged in racial discrimination through the tweet as an appeal hearing kicked off on Monday.
"It appears (the One Nation leader) just does not appreciate that the accusation of hypocrisy is itself racist," argued Senator Faruqi's barrister Jessie Taylor.
Senator Hanson spent a lot of time complaining about Australia, Ms Taylor said.
However, she showed a different attitude to those with "outsider status" who had moved here and enjoyed privileges yet had the temerity to criticise the country, the court was told.
Senator Hanson claims her post was an attack on Senator Faruqi's personal views on the death of Queen Elizabeth II and was not driven by her race, colour, national or ethnic origin.
The day of the Queen's death, Senator Faruqi took to Twitter, now known as X, to offer condolences to those who knew the monarch.
But she added she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a "racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples".
In a response, Senator Hanson said she was appalled and disgusted by the comments.
"When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country," she wrote.
"It's clear you're not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan."
Senator Hanson's barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC admitted on Monday that these remarks were not fit for an afternoon tea or the courtroom.
But she argued they were expected by Australian Twitter users accustomed to the argy-bargy of politicians.
The court's finding Senator Hanson's remarks actually intimidated Australian migrants of colour was extreme, Ms Chrysanthou told the court.
Senator Hanson's tweet was made following hours of posts by others making similar accusations against the Greens deputy leader, she said.
In finding the One Nation leader had engaged in racism, Justice Angus Stewart failed to take this context into account, the court was told.
The Greens' then-leader Adam Bandt had also been told to get out of Australia after he called for a republic on the day the Queen died, Ms Chrysanthou pointed out.
"It's not necessarily a racially motivated reason to say to that person, 'Why don't you just leave? If you don't like it here, leave'," she said.
Hanson's tweet was found to have breached 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act - a clause that has survived repeated efforts by conservative politicians to strike it out.
Ms Chrysanthou said that even if the appeals court agreed the tweet contravened the law in this way, Senator Hanson had a valid defence.
It was wholly reasonable for her to publish her genuine opinion responding to the public statements of Senator Faruqi, she told the court.
In his November 2024 findings, Justice Stewart found that migrants of colour, Australians who had recently immigrated, or Muslims who were people of colour in Australia would be insulted, offended, humiliated and intimidated by the tweet.
"It is a message that Senator Faruqi is, as an immigrant, a second-class citizen, and that she should be grateful for what she has and keep quiet," he said in his Federal Court ruling.
The phrase "go back to where you came from" was a racist, anti-immigrant and nativist trope traceable to the White Australia Policy, the judge declared.
The appeal hearing continues Tuesday.
