Pauline Hanson Says She’s Indigenous Because She Was Born In Australia

Australian politicians have been working through the Indigenous Affairs Minister's latest proposal: a referendum within the next three years on whether Aboriginal people should be included on the country's constitution.

Ken Wyatt has also called for an Indigenous advisory body to be added to the constitution, which former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said would 'inevitably become seen as a third chamber of parliament.

That latter proposal has caused a bit of a stir with some MPs, including One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who's had an interesting take on the matter. Speaking to Sky News, Ms Hanson has boldly claimed that she is being treated like a 'second-grade citizen in my own country'.

"I totally disagree with what they're aiming to do, to give the Indigenous people a voice on the floor of parliament.

As you said, we have people who are elected who are Indigenous, to the parliament, and they're doing the job and they're in ministerial positions.

"I don't believe in tokenism."

Ms Hanson went on to say that the number of Aboriginal people listed on the census skyrocketed between the 1970s and 2011, and that was, in her words, because white Australians were listing themselves as Indigenous to claim Aboriginality.

PA

The One Nation leader said that if a referendum to change the constitution to say Aboriginal people were the traditional owners of the land was approved and in the off-chance we ditch the Commonwealth and become a republic then we could be seeing lots of people lose the 'crown sovereignty of our land'.

Essentially, she's worried that if those two things happen, then Aboriginal people might start taking people to the High Court to get some hot property back in their hands.

The clip on Sky News finishes with Ms Hanson saying: "I'm sick of the tokenism. I'm sick of hearing about it... I'm Indigenous, I was born here, this is my land. We will be treated equally; we will work towards all the problems and issues.

"I'm sick and tired of being classed as a second-grade citizen in my own country."

ABC

When asked about Ms Hanson's comments, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said: "I have had meetings with Pauline and I will continue to have meetings with Pauline on what is emerging and how we are thinking. And people will react if they don't know the detail. That is why I want to co-design, so all of us know what the detail is.

"I admire Pauline for what she does and I have good meetings with her. We don't always see eye to eye on things, but I will certainly be involving Pauline in discussions that we have, as we move forward into the future."

There's no doubt the debate on the referendum will likely go on for months until a decision is made on whether it will be put to the Australian people.

Topics: News, Australia, Politics

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie