One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has come under renewed criticism after comments from a podcast recorded in November 2025 resurfaced, in which she described paid family and domestic violence leave as "ridiculous" and suggested police were being diverted from dealing with "real crime."

Unearthed Podcast Sparks Fresh Backlash

The remarks, made during an appearance on the Broken Fathers podcast and first reported by Nine newspapers, re-emerged after Hanson defended earlier comments describing domestic violence as a "two-way street."

The senator has rejected criticism, accusing the media and the Labor government of misrepresenting her views.

Criticism of Family Violence Policies

Speaking on the podcast, which focuses on fathers' experiences in family law disputes, Hanson criticised Australia's family violence framework and argued that changes to family law had increasingly favoured women.

She said the system had become "broken" because it was "suppressing the males all the time" and claimed reforms had been driven by "woke" politicians and women's advocacy groups.

"I do think it is broken because we've got too many woke people in parliament now, and it's pushing women's rights," Hanson said.

"But with ... women's rights, you've got to have women's responsibilities."

Hanson also criticised the introduction of 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave, calling the entitlement "ridiculous" and describing it as a "holiday."

The leave entitlement was introduced during the Albanese government's first term. Since 2024, victim-survivors leaving violent relationships have also been eligible to receive up to A$5,000 in tailored financial assistance.

Police and Family Violence Claims

During the 70-minute interview, Hanson argued that domestic violence cases were consuming most police resources, claiming officers were spending about 75% of their time responding to such incidents.

She said this was preventing police from tackling what she described as "real crime" and argued the current approach should be scaled back.

Hanson also said police had become frustrated with the reporting requirements associated with domestic violence cases.

Union Response

The Australian Council of Trade Unions condemned Hanson's comments, particularly her characterisation of paid domestic violence leave.

ACTU president Michele O'Neil described the remarks as "shockingly out of touch" and called them "reckless and dangerous."

O'Neil said paid family and domestic violence leave was introduced after unions campaigned on behalf of victim-survivors who said they needed time to leave abusive relationships without sacrificing their income.

She rejected Hanson's description of the leave as a holiday, saying those accessing it faced difficult and often dangerous circumstances while seeking safety.

Join the discussion?

24 July 2026

View full article

Hanson’s outbursts follow a familiar pattern: hateful rhetoric permeated with exclusion, grievance, and hostility toward anyone outside her narrow worldview.

She represents the ugliest strain in Australian politics, one that treats empathy, inclusion, tolerance, and even religious diversity as threats.

The disgrace isn’t just her views; it’s the mob that condones them, the same rabble that treats division as a political identity. Their applause says more about them than about any issue they claim to defend.

Sadly, it sends to be the current global right‑wing reflex: distort the reality of violence, blame the vulnerable, stoke religious resentment, and portray compassion as ideological contamination.

Her rhetoric mirrors the worst instincts still tolerated in parts of Australia, and is a reminder of how far my country still has to go in rejecting these hate‑laden narratives.

7 minutes ago, Jim Waldron said:

Sadly, it sends to be the current global right‑wing reflex: distort the reality of violence, blame the vulnerable, stoke religious resentment, and portray compassion as ideological contamination.

Maybe if Muslims stopped stabbing us, raping our daughters, turning our streets into rubbish dumps, and burning our churches, nobody would feel the need to form mobs and listen to Pauline.

Edited July 24Jul 24 by BritManToo

14 minutes ago, Jim Waldron said:

Hanson’s outbursts follow a familiar pattern: hateful rhetoric permeated with exclusion, grievance, and hostility toward anyone outside her narrow worldview.

She represents the ugliest strain in Australian politics, one that treats empathy, inclusion, tolerance, and even religious diversity as threats.

The disgrace isn’t just her views; it’s the mob that condones them, the same rabble that treats division as a political identity. Their applause says more about them than about any issue they claim to defend.

Sadly, it sends to be the current global right‑wing reflex: distort the reality of violence, blame the vulnerable, stoke religious resentment, and portray compassion as ideological contamination.

Her rhetoric mirrors the worst instincts still tolerated in parts of Australia, and is a reminder of how far my country still has to go in rejecting these hate‑laden narratives.

Like taxpayer funded ABC aired a broadcast involving calls to torture and murder Gina Rinehart. The description of the violence was extreme and even hideously sexualised.

I say Hanson is spot on.

She must be getting very popular if they're dragging up this non-story again. 😄

I feel a ban from politics might be in her tea leaves ala Marine Le Pen.

What arch-racist Pauline fails to acknowledge in One Nation is that there are 500-600 Koori nations who were there before the British criminals arrived. They were shot for sport by the colonists. Come to think of it, exactly the way the West Bank colonists!

On 7/24/2026 at 6:40 AM, Jim Waldron said:

Hanson’s outbursts follow a familiar pattern: hateful rhetoric permeated with exclusion, grievance, and hostility toward anyone outside her narrow worldview.

She represents the ugliest strain in Australian politics, one that treats empathy, inclusion, tolerance, and even religious diversity as threats.

The disgrace isn’t just her views; it’s the mob that condones them, the same rabble that treats division as a political identity. Their applause says more about them than about any issue they claim to defend.

Sadly, it sends to be the current global right‑wing reflex: distort the reality of violence, blame the vulnerable, stoke religious resentment, and portray compassion as ideological contamination.

Her rhetoric mirrors the worst instincts still tolerated in parts of Australia, and is a reminder of how far my country still has to go in rejecting these hate‑laden narratives.

Yes, her rhetoric encourages the same attitudes in other nations such as Europe, the UK, US and Scandinavia. Only Spain has adopted a human policy of tolerance. Do ordinary people there feel overrun, afraid and resentful of PoC? Nope.

2 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

What arch-racist Pauline fails to acknowledge in One Nation is that there are 500-600 Koori nations who were there before the British criminals arrived. They were shot for sport by the colonists. Come to think of it, exactly the way the West Bank colonists!

Your incessant focus on Israel isn't normal .

Do you subconsciously believe that you will go to the Christian heaven if you keep attacking Jews/Israel ?

1 hour ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Your incessant focus on Israel isn't normal .

Do you subconsciously believe that you will go to the Christian heaven if you keep attacking Jews/Israel ?

I definitely won't go to heaven--there isn't one!

I don't think I'm any more obsessed with Israel than you!

I think you're asking why I'm focused on Israel. I'm focused on Israel because I think Israel is the most dangerous country to world peace, with the US a close second. I don't say that because Israel has the bomb and might use it--though I do think that Israel is the most likely country to use the bomb if they feel threatened, seconded by the US, third maybe Russia--but because Israel is so pre-emptively aggressive.

Israel is a country, seconded by the US, who believes violence can solve all their problems. I don't buy that. If they've been practicing violence since 1909 and it hasn't worked, isn't it time to try something else?

This in no way means I condone terrorism against Israel, fomented by Iran. But Bibi never believed Israel could conquer Iran and, for the smart money, he ditched the Iran war after two weeks and left the US holding the bag--which they're still fumbling.

What concerns me is that Israel's hypermilitarised society where everybody has been a soldier, condones violence not only at the military level, e.g., Gaza, but at the personal level, e.g., West Bank. They act with impunity because they think Palestinians are less than human and should be forced out.

Israel has become terrorist, too.

23 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I don't think I'm any more obsessed with Israel than you!

As usual , just say the same thing back, just changing a few words around

How many threads have you started about Israel compared to me ?

You have started more threads about Israel today than I have started threads about Israel all year

5 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

As usual , just say the same thing back, just changing a few words around

How many threads have you started about Israel compared to me ?

You have started more threads about Israel today than I have started threads about Israel all year

And you, my friend, have replied to every one. Obviously, that means you're quite as obsessed as I.

28 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

And you, my friend, have replied to every one. Obviously, that means you're quite as obsessed as I.

Really, here is your todays thread About Israel and I didn't reply or post in it, so, that makes you wrong in your claim

And another of your threads about Israel that I didn't post in

Edited July 25Jul 25 by Nick Carter icp

On 7/24/2026 at 9:40 AM, Jim Waldron said:

Hanson’s outbursts follow a familiar pattern: hateful rhetoric permeated with exclusion, grievance, and hostility toward anyone outside her narrow worldview.

Crikey, you did that well, your description fits that of your typical, Woke, Leftist.

Let me guess, you're a Labor voter.

On 7/24/2026 at 7:11 AM, webfact said:

Pauline Hanson Criticised Over Domestic Violence Remarks

Pauline has done it tough over the years, I'd say she knows more about this subject than Albo and his motley crew.

On 7/24/2026 at 6:50 AM, BritManToo said:

Maybe if Muslims stopped stabbing us, raping our daughters, turning our streets into rubbish dumps, and burning our churches, nobody would feel the need to form mobs and listen to Pauline.

The subject is a rightwing leader stoking grievance over domestic violence, not your Muslim thing.

I‘Ve not been stabbed and despite our differences I do hope nobody is stabbing you either.

Perhaps Hanson is hoping to corner the wife beater vote?

I can’t fault her on spotting an opportunity.

Her recent visit to the UK might have given her an opportunity to observe the presence of wife beaters amongst the UK’s far right protesters.

Unfortunately if the BIB (Boys in Blue) slow down on trying to sort domestic violence out it will only make them target more traffic offences. A win for the Gov coffers.

Go Pauline, Australia needs a radicle change from the mob that are destroying Starya from within.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by Bagwain

On 7/24/2026 at 6:40 AM, Jim Waldron said:

Hanson’s outbursts follow a familiar pattern: hateful rhetoric permeated with exclusion, grievance, and hostility toward anyone outside her narrow worldview.

She represents the ugliest strain in Australian politics, one that treats empathy, inclusion, tolerance, and even religious diversity as threats.

The disgrace isn’t just her views; it’s the mob that condones them, the same rabble that treats division as a political identity. Their applause says more about them than about any issue they claim to defend.

Sadly, it sends to be the current global right‑wing reflex: distort the reality of violence, blame the vulnerable, stoke religious resentment, and portray compassion as ideological contamination.

Her rhetoric mirrors the worst instincts still tolerated in parts of Australia, and is a reminder of how far my country still has to go in rejecting these hate‑laden narratives.

Not an out burst. Biased media posting crap. She wants to sell the ABC which is a pile of crap.