Sunrise host David Koch has angrily confronted right wing politician Pauline Hanson on live TV, laying in to her for helping to popularise anti-Muslim politics in Australia.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
Following in the wake of a massacre of 50 worshippers at a Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque by alleged Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant, Kochie wanted to know if Hanson felt any responsibility for the social tension that she has helped to whip up with her inflammatory political positions on Muslims.
Tarrant, who issued a 74-page manifesto outlining his grievances, has appeared in a New Zealand court charged with murder.
‘This terrorist manifesto almost reads like One Nation immigration and Muslim policy. Do you feel complicit with this atrocity?,’ Koch bluntly asked Hanson.
But as usual, the Queensland senator was having none of it.
‘David, I feel for those people and I feel for those families who have lost lives,’ she said. ‘The same across the road here when we had the Lindt Cafe terrorist attacks.
‘We have problems but you’ve actually got to discuss it and debate the issue. Why we have these terrorist attacks in this country. Why is it happening around the world? Why is it happening in many places?’
Kochie replied that Australian extremists may be ‘egged on by your comments, by your anti-Muslim comments’.
‘(Things like) “they don’t deserve to be here”, “they will take over our country”. Can you understand how that empowers a white supremacist … into seeing it as a call to arms?’
While Hanson diverted the discussion to events overseas, she was soon taken to task by Derryn Hinch for her past support of former One Nation representative Senator Fraser Anning, who had issued a press release after the massacre appearing to blame Muslim immigration for the atrocity.
He has since suffered a massive backlash and was egged by a teenage protester, in scenes that have gone viral around the world.
When Hanson was asked if she’d endorsed him in the past due to his extreme views, which were dubbed by Hinch as white supremacist, she lashed out, claiming she didn’t know what he believed.
‘For you to say that is absolutely disgusting,’ she claimed. ‘No, I didn’t pick him because of that.’
It remains to be seen if Hanson will continue to be a guest on Sunrise.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
