Pauline Hanson criticised for taking funding from Australia’s richest person

Pauline Hanson is under fire after revealing Australia’s richest person had paid for her flights and ticket to a luxury fashion parade during her contentious trip to Europe.

The One Nation Leader on Tuesday declared that Gina Rinehart paid for her flights between London, Rome and Sicily and attendance to the Dolce & Gabbana show from July 11 to July 16.

She said she personally paid for her accommodation, meals and daily expenses during the two-week trip to the UK and Italy.

Environment Minister Murray Watt criticised Hanson for her luxury trip just weeks after telling the National Press Club that workers are lazy and businesses should be able to sack them.

“Just weeks after Senator Hanson called Australian workers lazy, we learn her sponsor paid for her to lounge by the pool and attend Dolce and Gabbana fashion shows in Europe,” he told nine.com.au.

“No wonder Senator Hanson says it should be easier to sack workers.

“While we’ve been focused on helping Australians with the cost of living, One Nation has been focused on attacking workers and cutting wages to please their mates.”

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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said it was a matter for Hanson to explain why the country’s richest person paid for her trip to Italy.

“What I will say is that if people want to contribute to our party, I’m going to make sure we use that money to get rid of a rotten Labor government,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

National Party Leader Matt Canavan said he would not have accepted any money from Rinehart.

“What I would do in these circumstances if a large benefactor offered me a holiday, I’d say ‘Look, actually, I prefer you just to put that money into changing the government because that’s what our country needs’,” he told Today.

“Small businesses, some real estate agents I just spoke to, are just pulling their hair out. They’re working very hard. They obviously can’t afford these holidays over to the Mediterranean right now.

“I put all that effort, all those resources into that, rather than take funding to do other things around the world.”

Hanson and Rinehart were pictured poolside at a luxe Sicilian hotel made famous by the television show The White Lotus earlier this month during the One Nation leader’s “fact-finding mission” to meet far-right and conservative figures in the UK.

She appeared on a podcast and confronted migrants with convicted criminal and Islamophobe Tommy Robinson, in which she appeared to suggest issues with Australian migration began when the White Australia policy was repealed in the 1960s. 

Hanson walked back that remark and said she did not support a White Australia.

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She told a conservative political event that Australia had become “flooded” with migrants and told Seven she loved the idea of mass deportation.

Questioned about who funded the trip upon her first public appearance upon her return to Australia, Hanson said: “It didn’t cost the taxpayer one cent for my trip overseas. Not one cent.”

Rinehart has also gifted Hanson a $2 million light plane, $2 million in cash and five flights on her plane – one international and four domestic – since December.

Hanson stood defiant in the face of criticism of her relationship with the billionaire and told a crowd in Perth last week that she would not apologise for the support.

“She’s a very proud, patriotic Australian, and she sees the same in me. That’s why she backs me,” she said.

“For years, the major political parties have been getting millions and millions and millions out all these other organisations, corporations, banks, you name it, and the billionaires. But I don’t see the scrutiny on them.”

Labor is currently facing scrutiny over its own donation scandal, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese under fire for attending an exclusive dinner hosted by the son of a billionaire accused of funnelling money from China to Australia.