Hanson vows to shut prayer halls that preach hatred

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has pledged to close prayer halls where hatred is preached and deport foreign preachers who incite violence, telling a Melbourne business audience that radical Islam had been “allowed to fester” in Australia.

Addressing an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Friday, the Queensland senator said last December’s Bondi terror attack was not an isolated incident.

“It was a radical Islam problem, one that has been allowed to fester,” she said.

“I want the power to shut down the prayer halls where this hatred is preached. I want foreign preachers who incite violence on a plane out of this country, I want the ones born here in front of a judge, and I want ASIO and the federal police to have all the resources they need to do it.”

Senator Hanson pointed to a Melbourne preacher reported last month to have told his followers to take up arms against Christians and Jews.

She accused the government of writing hate laws as if everyone in Australia were the problem, rather than naming the threat.

“Christians aren’t calling for jihad, Hindus aren’t calling for jihad, Jews aren’t calling for jihad. So why write a law that treats them all the same?”

She praised Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Muslim man who wrested a gun from one of the Bondi attackers, as “a hero”.

“So don’t let anyone tell you I’m talking about every Muslim in this country. I’m not.”

Senator Hanson said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had taken almost two days after the Bondi Chanukah attack, in which 15 people were murdered, to name the killers’ motivation.

“He refused to say the word Islamic terrorism,” she said.

Referring to the protest outside the Sydney Opera House two days after October 7, when Jewish Sydneysiders were advised to stay away, she said: “I won’t accept any Australian being told to stay home, like what happened in Sydney. Not Jewish Australians. Not anyone. Not anymore.”

She said antisemitism “has to be stamped out of Australian politics”, adding that it was “rampant in the Greens” and “a cancer within the Labor Party”.

“I will hold my party to the same standard that I expect of others,” she said.

Senator Hanson also cited the December 2024 firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea, which she said ASIO had attributed to Iran, and criticised the government for recognising a Palestinian state while hostages remained in Gaza.

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said there was “much in Senator Hanson’s address today that we welcome”, noting she had made clear she was not speaking about Muslim Australians generally.

“We must be able to confront antisemitism and extremism directly without vilifying other Australians,” he said.

Mr Leibler described her pledge to hold One Nation to the same standard as “particularly significant”.

“Antisemitism must be confronted consistently, whether it comes from the far left or the far right, and irrespective of whose political interests are inconvenienced by doing so,” he said.

He called on the party to make clear that candidates, members or office holders who promote Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories about Jewish control of institutions, or false-flag theories about attacks on Jewish Australians have no place in One Nation, and to act when those standards are breached.

Mr Leibler also urged One Nation to demonstrate a vision of Australian belonging “genuinely inclusive of all Australians, including Indigenous Australians and Australians of every background”.

“Today’s address is a welcome and important step,” he said.

With Victorians voting on November 28, Senator Hanson said One Nation would contest the state election.

She closed by recalling Australia’s vote at the United Nations in 1947.

“In 1947, Australia was the first country in the world to stand up and say yes to statehood for Israel. I’d like us to be that country again.”