Pauline Hanson refused to apologise to Port Arthur massacre victims on Friday morning after she suggested the mass-shooting was set up by the government to justify gun control.
The One Nation leader was secretly filmed last year saying she had ‘a lot of questions’ about the 1996 disaster where a gunman slaughtered 35 people.
Her comments were recorded by an undercover reporter posing as a gun rights activist and exposed this week in a documentary by Qatari news channel Al Jazeera.
In a fiery interview with Deborah Knight on the Today Show on Friday morning, Hanson claimed the documentary was a ‘set-up’ and ‘dubbed’ to make her look bad.
The Queensland senator refused to apologise to Port Arthur Massacre victims for her comments, instead blaming Al Jazeera.
Hidden camera footage, released by Al Jazeera as part of an undercover operation, showed Senator Hanson saying she had ‘a lot of questions’ about the 1996 Port Arthur, which saw 35 people shot dead
Deborah asked Hanson if she wanted to say sorry to victims’ families, asking: ‘Will you apologise to them in any way, shape or form?’
Hanson replied: ‘Deb, my comments were made at a dinner table, never made publicly. This is not my doing to have exposed my comments.
‘It was Al Jazeera and an under cover agent. I’m sorry for these people. I am really sorry for them. They shouldn’t have to go through this again.’
In the secret footage, filmed by Al Jazeera uncover reporter Roger Muller, Hanson had said she questions the massacre.
‘An MP said it would actually take a massacre in Tasmania to change the gun laws in Australia,’ Senator Hanson said.
‘Haven’t you heard that? Have a look at it. It was said on the floor of parliament.
‘I’ve read a lot and I have read the book on it, Port Arthur. A lot of questions there.’
Hanson insisted her comments on the massacre were taken out of context and even suggested the footage had been dubbed to make her look bad.
‘They’ve cut and pasted the questions and the answers that we’ve actually given,’ she said.
Pauline Hanson clashed with Deborah Knight in a tense interview on the Today Show on Friday morning
The aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre which killed 35 people in 1996 in Tasmania
Pauline Hanson (left) meets undercover reporter Roger Muller (right) during a secret Al Jazeera documentary
She said of reporter Roger Muller in the footage: ‘I know I don’t see his face or his lips moving. I feel this has been dubbed out and it has been cut and pasted so many times.’
Deborah asked: ‘Do you believe that the Port Arthur massacre was not a government conspiracy.’
‘Of course,’ Hanson responded.
Deborah continued: ‘How do you think the families hearing any suggestion, even the hint…’
Hanson cut her off and said: ‘Deb, I never said at all that it was a conspiracy.’
Deborah pointed out that there were scores of One Nation supporters who believed that the massacre was a set-up.
Pauline Hanson in a press conference on Thursday evening
‘What do you say to those people?’ she asked.
‘It could not possibly be a government conspiracy theory,’ Hanson said.
The Al Jazeera investigation filmed Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby and One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson meeting with the National Rifle Association in the US last September.
The pair were caught on camera excitedly discussing what they would do with $20million funding from the NRA – but Hanson denied they ever asked the group for money.
In one heated moment, Deborah asked: ‘Why did James Ashby and Steve Dickson talk about wanting to get millions of dollars from the NRA, wanting to win power?
Hanson replied: ‘Sorry Deb, let’s pull that the up. Deb they never ever asked the NRA for any money.
‘They talked about what they could achieve,’ Deborah said.
‘No, no… if they were to get money from the NRA,’ Hanson said. ‘That was Muller putting boards in their mouth, it was taken out of context.’
Hanson called the investigation ‘a sting, a set up to discredit One Nation.’
‘The media have portrayed that we actually went to the NRA for money which was never the case.
‘They say we wanted to water down the gun laws, never ever the case,’ she said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has emerged in public for the first time since a tick bit her face
She even entertained the wild conspiracy theory that Al Jazeera set One Nation up on purpose so that the Liberal Party tell voters to preference them below Labor.
‘Who’s to say that this wasn’t a setup so that eventually they would get the Prime Minister, the Liberal Party say we’re going to wipe One Nation all together,’ she said.
Scott Morrison told Liberal Party supporters not to preference One Nation on Thursday.
Hanson called him a ‘fool’ and said: What the Prime Minister has done is not true leadership in my eyes.
‘Yes he is a fool because he’s fallen into the trap of what the Labor Party and the Greens want, because he’s just handed the keys to them for the Lodge.’
On Thursday Hanson emerged in public for the first time since suffering facial paralysis from a tick bite – amid the outcry over her suggestion the Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy.
The Queensland senator and party founder was pictured by Daily Mail Australia leaving her hobby farm near Ipswich, in southern Queensland, on Thursday morning.
She was seen driving her white Toyota LandCruiser Prado four-wheel drive down her driveway as she prepared to front a media conference in Brisbane to answer questions about her suggestion the killing of 35 people at Port Arthur in April 1996 was a government conspiracy to justify gun control.
The One Nation founder left her rural home as Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to put her party behind Labor on how-to-vote cards, claiming her stance on Australia’s worst ever gun massacre in Tasmania was the last straw.
‘The comments, particularly last night, and the linkages to Port Arthur, I’m sure all Australians would be shocked about. I was shocked by them,’ he told reporters on Thursday.
Senator Hanson cancelled her public appearances on Wednesday after a tick bit her face, causing it to swell and make her look ‘unrecognisable’.
Her sister Judy Smith had told Daily Mail Australia the senator was unwell.
‘No, she’s not okay,’ she said early on Wednesday afternoon.
The Queensland senator and party founder was photographed by Daily Mail Australia leaving her farm, southwest of Ipswich Queensland, on Thursday morning
Senator Hanson is furious at the Qatar-government owned Al Jazeera network going under cover for three years to film herself, her chief-of-staff James Ashby and her party’s Queensland leader Steve Dickson.
Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson were secretly videoed talking about the potential of receiving $20 million from the American National Rifle Association, as part of a documentary How To Sell A Massacre which the ABC has aired this week.
In 1987, months before losing an election, former New South Wales Labor premier Barrie Unsworth prophetically predicted it would take carnage in Tasmania before Australia had national gun laws.
‘It will take a massacre in Tasmania before we get gun law reform in Australia,’ he told a national gun summit in Canberra, after Tasmania and Queensland rejected his policy idea.
Addressing the media on Thursday afternoon, Senator Hanson claimed the ‘Islamist’ Al Jazeera network had ‘heavily edited’ her comments on Port Arthur which ‘do not reflect how I feel about those tragedies’.
She was seen driving her Toyota LandCruiser Prado four-wheel drive down her driveway as she prepared to front a media conference in Brisbane to answer questions about the One Nation gun scandal
‘There is no question in my mind that Martin Bryant was the only person responsible for the murders of 35 innocent lives and my belief stands today that he should have faced the death penalty,’ she said.
One Nation’s New South Wales leader Mark Latham said Senator Hanson’s comments didn’t match up with his exchanges with the party’s founder, who previously ran a fish-and-chips shop in Ipswich.
‘I had a discussion with her about the making of the Howard gun laws and she didn’t raise any doubts about the veracity of the truth of what happened at Port Arthur,’ he told Seven’s Sunrise on Thursday.
Another of Al Jazeera’s videos showed Mr Dickson and Mr Ashby speaking to the undercover reporter about potential donations.
The men claim they were ‘on the sauce’ when the conversation took place.
Mr Morrison said being drunk was no excuse and has urged Australians to abandon the conservative minor party.
In the Al Jazeera footage, Mr Dickson says One Nation could get the government ‘by the balls’ through holding the balance of power in both houses if they could get millions in funding.
That would allow them to weaken Australia’s gun laws, a point they raised with powerful lobby groups in Washington DC, including the National Rifle Association.
Senator Hanson broke her silence on Wednesday, saying she was shocked and disgusted with the ‘hit piece’ by Qatari TV network Al Jazeera.
‘A Qatari government organisation should not be targeting Australian political parties. This has been referred to ASIO,’ she tweeted.
Labor leader Bill Shorten had repeatedly called for the Prime Minister to back up his condemnation of One Nation by putting them last on Liberal Party how-to-vote cards.
Mr Morrison has consistently said his party would wait until final nominations before deciding on its preferences.
Mr Ashby said the pair spoke only with undercover Al Jazeera reporter Rodger Muller about the potential $US20 million in donations.
Mr Ashby accused Mr Muller, who is Australian, of being a ‘Middle Eastern spy’.
Queensland Senator and Australian One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson (C), flanked by party officials James Ashby (L) and Steve Dickson (R), speaks during a press conference in Brisbane