One Nation’s deputy leader in Victoria denies AI-generated video is racist

One Nation’s deputy leader in Victoria has denied an AI-generated campaign video depicting an Indian driver, a young man of African descent with a machete and a Middle Eastern man wearing a suicide vest is racist.

The ad was released at the party’s campaign launch in Victoria last month and was shared and endorsed by party leader Pauline Hanson on Facebook.

It has not appeared on television.

The clip depicts a range of people “coming out” as conservative and a variety of racial and cultural stereotypes.

Colleen Harkin, the party’s deputy leader in Victoria, told Raf Epstein on ABC Melbourne radio the video was not racist.

“Well I am not accepting that it is racist,” Harkin said.

“It’s a messaging issued out to people the general view about all the things that are going wrong with Australia and what needs to fix them.”

Harkin, a former member of the Liberal Party and the director of education at the conservative think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, said she believed Victorians agreed there were problems with crime and social cohesion.

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“It is big issues that need to be addressed,” she said.

Epstein countered that “judging people based on the group they are part of rather than who they are as an individual” was the “definition of prejudice”.

“But would you complain if it was a white-skinned person or a female with blonde hair?” Harkin said.

When Epstein pointed out the only white people in the clip were those voting for One Nation, Harkin responded: “So?”

When Epstein listed a variety of Hanson’s comments about Muslim Australians and Islam, she said the issue was with radical Islam.

"Radical Islam is a problem for Australia and I don't think many people would disagree with that," she said.

She said Muslims should stand up to other Muslims radicalising young people and “do it louder”.