Indigenous TV reporter Brooke Boney has unleashed on Pauline Hanson for her ‘disgusting vilification’ of housing commission residents on Monday which had the politician dumped from Channel Nine’s Today show.
The One Nation senator and frequent Today show guest was banned by Nine after she called locked-down housing commission residents ‘drug addicts and alcoholics’ and said refugees inside should learn English in an extraordinary interview on Monday morning.
Boney – herself an entertainment reporter for Today – said there was a difference in using free speech to drive public debate forward and doing so ‘to be deliberately mean-spirited’.
‘I’m all for free speech, and I think that people, when they have different perspectives and different opinions, that most of the time it does help drive argument forward or debate forward,’ she said on Q&A on Monday evening.
Boney – herself an entertainment reporter for Today – said there was a difference in using free speech to drive public debate forward and doing so ‘to be deliberately mean-spirited’
‘But when you use it to vilify people, or to be deliberately mean and mean-spirited, it’s… that, to me, is disgusting.’
Nine executives said the comments by the divisive senator were ‘ill-informed and divisive’, while the network’s director of morning television Steven Burling called them ‘unacceptable’.
‘I am so happy to see her gone,’ Boney told Q&A host Hamish Macdonald. ‘She says hurtful things about Aboriginal people as well that upset me.
‘It’s not about me being upset – it’s about someone being intentionally divisive. And they’re ill-informed, they’re just not true – the things that she says.
‘That’s what’s really upsetting because, as a journalist, you try your very best to make sure that what you say is factual and even when you do give your opinion, you don’t say things that aren’t true.’
Boney added Ms Hanson’s controversial interview earlier in the day had left her ‘completely heartbroken’ – especially considering the Aboriginal presenter herself grew up in a housing commission home.
The journalist spoke earlier this year about growing up ‘poor’ in a Muswellbrook housing commission in NSW’s Hunter Valley – with her single mother Leonie struggling financially to support her and her five siblings.
Residents of the Flemington Towers Government Housing complex are tested for COVID-19 in Melbourne on Monday. Pauline Hanson has been banned from appearing on Channel Nine’s Today show after she said refugees should be accustomed to tough conditions inside locked-down tower blocks having experienced life in the war-torn countries they came from
‘I was thinking about all of those kids sitting at home watching, all of those people trapped in their apartments thinking ”This is what Australia thinks of us. This is what the rest of our country thinks – is that we’re alcoholics and drug addicts”,’ Boney said.
Nine executives ruled the ever-outspoken One Nation senator had crossed a line when she told Today host Allison Langdon residents complaining about being locked in their towers should ‘know what it’s like to be in tough conditions’.
‘Come on Ally, we’ve seen food being delivered there,’ Hanson said.
‘A lot of them are drug addicts as well, they are getting their medication, they are alcoholics so they’re being looked after in that way.’
‘I am so happy to see her gone,’ Boney told Q+A host Hamish Macdonald when asked if she was pleased Channel Nine gave Hanson the boot. ‘She says hurtful things about Aboriginal people as well that upset me.’
Boney said Hanson’s controversial interview earlier in the day had left her ‘completely heartbroken’ given her own upbringing in a Housing Commission home
Hanson said refugees should be accustomed to tough conditions having experienced life in the war-torn home countries.
Speaking to Sky News’ Andrew Bolt while wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Australian flag on Monday evening, Ms Hanson denied claims her comments were ‘ill-informed’ and said they were not racist.
‘As long as I’m a member of parliament, I’m going to keep speaking out and saying what I feel, what needs to be said if we’re going to have a cohesive society,’ she said as she revealed she ‘didn’t regret’ her comments.
‘I couldn’t care less about whether I go on Channel 9 or not.
‘I have my Facebook page, I connect with people. I don’t really care about Channel 9 or Channel 7.’
Pauline Hanson (left) was banned from her regular appearance on the Today show after a shocking rant about residents in Melbourne’s public housing towers on Monday that led host Allison Langdon to ask: ‘Do you have a heart Pauline?’
She claimed she was only being called racist because people disagreed with her point of view.
‘I’m up for election in two years time – if they don’t want me, good. Don’t vote for me. That’s as simple as that. Until then, they’ve got me for the next two years and if you don’t like its stiff biccies,’ she said.
‘I’m not disrespectful to people but I will call out the way I see it which is in tune with a lot of Australians.
‘Having criticism is not racism. I’m not racist and people misuse that word when they disagree with what you have to say.’
Hanson denied claims her comments on the Today show about Melbourne’s locked down public housing residents were ‘ill-informed’ and that they constituted racism.
Police patrol the housing commission flats at 120 Racecourse Road in Flemington on Monday
Bolt asked Hanson if she regretted what she said – to which she responded ‘no I don’t’, before prefacing her reply by adding she should have chosen her words better.
‘What I read [was] about the methadone and various alcohol addiction and other problems,’ she said.
‘I probably shouldn’t have said ‘a lot’. [of people have drug and alcohol addictions]’
Hanson’s rant led to widespread outrage on social media and Channel Nine announced within hours she would no longer be a regular contributor on the Today show.
‘The Today show has advised Pauline Hanson that she will no longer be appearing on our programme as a regular contributor,’ a Nine spokesperson said.
‘We don’t shy away from diverse opinions and robust debate on the Today show. But this morning’s accusations from Pauline Hanson were ill-informed and divisive.
Some 3,000 public housing residents have been subjected to a ‘hard lockdown’ by the Victorian government in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19 inside the walls of the towers
‘At a time of uncertainty in this national and global health crisis, Australians have to be united and supportive of one another. We need to get through this together.’
Hanson earlier hit back at the network in an interview with The Australian, saying its decision to axe her as a regular contributor is ‘detrimental’ to free speech.
‘We’re getting to the point to where you can’t give your opinion. What Channel 9 has done is detrimental to freedom of speech,’ she said.
‘Channel 9 is going down the wrong path here. People in Queensland are very concerned about COVID. I’ve been speaking about people coming here and not learning the English language for years … they don’t know what to do.
‘I really don’t care if I don’t go on Channel 9. I have Facebook followers and speak to people in the street and I go on numerous Sky programs. It’s no skin off my nose.’
Hanson claimed the network was sending a clear message to all Australians that those who ‘step outside the boundaries’ will be ‘silenced’.
Hanson said refugees who fled war-torn countries should be able to deal with being locked up. (Pictured: Angry tower residents place signs in their windows showing messages of despair amid total lockdown)
The senator then took to social media to double down on her remarks.
‘It’s being reported I made ‘a number of controversial comments’ this morning. I’ve gone back over the interview and I’m struggling to see what I said that was so controversial,’ she said.
Nine’s news and current affairs director Darren Wick said in a statement that Hanson’s remarks were ‘ill-informed and divisive’.
‘The Today Show has advised Pauline Hanson that she will no longer be appearing on our program as a regular contributor,’ he said in a statement.
‘We don’t shy away from diverse opinions and robust debate on the Today Show.
‘But this morning’s accusations from Pauline Hanson were ill-informed and divisive.
‘At a time of uncertainty in this national and global health crisis, Australians have to be united and supportive of each other. We need to get through this together.’
Hanson argued other Australians have also been through a similar lockdown, and said it is no different to the housing commission quarantine
Hanson hit out at the 3,000 residents who have been subjected to a ‘hard lockdown’ by the Victorian government in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19 inside the walls of the towers.
Many residents have complained at a lack of notice before the lockdown came into force and say they have not been supplied with food or essentials.
The nine public housing towers across Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne are home to some of Victoria’s most vulnerable people, including refugees who fled to Australia from wartorn countries.
‘I saw them taking a truck load of food to them, all the rest of it – if they are from war torn countries, which some of these people are, they know what it is like to be in tough conditions,’ she said.
More than 3000 tenants in nine buildings were unprepared for the surprise decision and many had been left without groceries
‘Have a look at the facts before you criticise. The governments and all of these … interest groups and everyone will make sure they’re well looked after.’
Hanson rejected suggestions that health authorities and the government should be communicating with residents in their native languages.
‘Why should we? Why should we put everything out in someone else’s language when you come to Australia,’ she said.
‘We should not be putting out literature in their own language. Learn to speak English when you come here to this country. That’s a big problem that we have in Australia.’
‘A lot of these people are from non-English speaking backgrounds, probably English is their second language who haven’t adhered to the rules of social distancing. They all used a lot of the same laundry,’ she said.
Following her rant, Hanson was asked by Langdon: ‘Do you have a heart Pauline?’
Hanson went on to say the no-warning lockdown was justified if residents were not practicing social distancing.
Towers in the suburbs of Flemington (pictured), Kensington and North Melbourne will be closed for five days
Medical staff wearing PPE holding material about to walk into the Flemington Public housing flats
‘Why is it they are in that situation? Why has the government gone to this high-rise building and shut it down? Possibly because a lot of these people weren’t doing the right thing,’ she said.
‘There has to be a reason why they have targeted this set of blocks, apartment blocks. Ask that question.’
Hanson argued other Australians have also been through a similar lockdown, and said it is no different to the housing commission quarantine.
‘We’ve gone through months of people, the public being locked up. We’ve gone through months where people couldn’t go to the park, gyms, couldn’t go to the park, couldn’t go any where,’ she said.
‘Australian people have been locked up in their homes for ages.
‘We really need to clean up the COVID-19. Make up your mind. You either want to clean up COVID-19 or you don’t. And you have to make the tough decisions if we are going to get this country back on track.’
The end of Hanson’s year-long role at the Today show comes after she parted ways with Seven News rival Sunrise over a clash with host David Koch about the Christchurch massacre.
Premier Andrews locked the doors to nine housing towers from 4pm on Saturday amid fears the virus is spreading rapidly within their walls.
The ‘hard lockdown’ will force 3,000 people in towers across Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne to stay inside – with armed police on every floor of every block ensuring they do not leave for any reason over the next five days.
Residents who refuse to be tested for coronavirus could be locked up for as long as 14 days; the same quarantine period as people arriving from overseas.
‘We do have milk and bread, but if we are going to be in lockdown for 14 days, which is what we have been told, it is not going to last that long,’ Fleming tower resident Thana Sirag said.
Ms Sirag said she just wants to be treated like other households dealing with the virus.
‘We are put under much more severe circumstances than everyone else, we are being treated like prisoners,’ Ms Sirag said.
Premier Andrews locked the doors to nine public housing towers from 4pm on Saturday amid fears the virus is spreading rapidly within their walls
The ‘hard lockdown’ will see 3,000 people in towers across Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne forced to stay inside Pictured: Police enforce a lockdown at public housing towers on Racecourse Road in Flemington
Victoria has for weeks been grappling with an outbreak of coronavirus across various Melbourne hotspots.
The state racked up another 74 new cases on Sunday, bringing its confirmed infections total to 2536.
Some 12 Victorian postcodes have been put into stage three lockdown until at least July 29 in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
Two of those areas, covering North Melbourne, Hotham Hill, Kensington and Flemington in the city’s inner northwest are home to the nine public housing towers.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the hard lockdown was about the safety of residents as well as the entire state.
‘This is not about punishment, this is about protection for you and your loved ones,’ he said.
‘And then, by extension, it’s about protecting the entire state and we don’t make those decisions lightly.’