Formal complaint lodged to human rights commission over Hanson’s ‘primitive’ remark
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An Indigenous lawyer and human rights advocate has lodged a formal complaint with the human’s right commission over Pauline Hanson’s resurfaced remark that Indigenous Australians were the “most primitive race on Earth”.
Surrounded by a pack of reporters in Canberra on Tuesday, Hanson said she would apologise “if I offend people by using that” when asked about the comments she made on a podcast in September 2025.
Pauline Hanson has apologised for offending people by saying Indigenous Australians were the “most primitive race on Earth”. 9News
It came just minutes after she refused to say sorry during a News24 interview, telling the channel she has always “put my foot in my mouth” and is “not the most eloquent speaker”.
“If I offend people by using that, yes, I will apologise for that,” she told reporters outside the studio.
“I see the division that’s happening in Australia. I’ve always advocated we are Australians all together and should be all treated equally on a needs basis, not about race.”
Hanson left the press conference abruptly after only taking four questions from reporters.
Hannah McGlade has now lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.
She says she hopes Hanson will be sanctioned according the Race Discrimination Act 1975 and in parliament.
Hanson’s 2025 remarks were in response to her own rhetorical question about Indigenous history being learnt in the school curriculum.
“What the hell have they done in this country for, you know, supposedly 60,000 years?” she told the JJ Podcast in September 2025.
“A few, you know, rock paintings.
“Sorry, they’re the most primitive race on Earth, and we’re supposed to be holding up and saying what they’ve achieved.”
Pauline Hanson made the remarks on a podcast. YouTube
The remarks being resurfaced on Monday triggered widespread condemnation across party lines, led by Indigenous federal MPs and Senators Malarndirri McCarthy, Lidia Thorpe and Jacinta Price.
McCarthy, the Indigenous Australians minister and Yanyuwa and Garrwa woman, said Hanson’s remarks were “totally outrageous” and “completely racist”.
Price, the Liberal senator and Warlpiri woman, said it was a demonstration of “wilful ignorance” and a “complete failure” to understand Indigenous Australians.
And Thorpe, an independent senator and Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurring woman, said they were “nasty, poorly informed and harmful ideas”.
Hanson was visibly upset over her past remarks being dug up, telling News24 on Tuesday that no other politician has been treated the way she has.
“Someone’s out there digging up whatever dirt that I said how many years ago,” she said.
“Everything that’s happening through my office and other staffers [who have] worked in other political parties’ offices said we’ve never, ever, ever seen anything like this.”
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