Pauline Hanson, a former right-wing lawmaker who shot to popularity in the 1990s on a policy of curbing Asian migration to Australia, announced Wednesday she is registering a new political party that adds Muslims and refugees to her list of unwanted residents.
The 53-year-old firebrand plans to run for the Senate as a candidate of the new party, Pauline’s United Australia Party, in elections due around October. “I think we need to have a look at our immigration levels and I’d like to put a moratorium on any more Muslims coming into Australia,” Hanson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday.
She said Australia also needs to change its international humanitarian commitments so it can reject “refugees in this country that bring in diseases, who are incompatible with our lifestyle”. Hanson said she still stood by her first speech to Parliament in 1996 when she famously warned that Australia was “in danger of being swamped by Asians”.