Jacqui Lambie walks back support for Pauline Hanson tweet as race row continues

Jacqui Lambie has walked back her support for Pauline Hanson in a war of words over the Queen’s death that has sparked accusations of racism.

Lambie now claims she did not agree with the language used when the One Nation leader told a fellow senator to “piss off back to Pakistan”, but continued to blame Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for “disgraceful” comments about the Queen’s death.

On Friday Faruqi, the deputy leader of the Greens, expressed condolences “to those who knew the Queen” but said she “cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.

Hanson responded by claiming that Faruqi had taken “every advantage of this country” when she migrated and told her to “pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan”.

The tweet was marked -PH, denoting that Hanson had posted it personally from her official account.

At first, Lambie replied by saying Hanson was “right on the mark”.

On Monday, Lambie qualified that support for Hanson in a fresh statement claiming that while she didn’t “agree with all of Pauline’s tweet, or the language she used” she did “agree that the attitude on show here [by Faruqi] is pretty disgraceful”.

Lambie said it was “hugely offensive to say that it’s the fault of the Queen that our history is what it is”.

“A day after she died and the deputy leader of Australia’s third largest political party is saying that not only is the Queen’s death something that’s impossible to mourn, but by extension anybody who does so is a racist.”

Several commenters, including African Australian lawyer Nyadol Nyuon, noted the new statement misrepresented Faruqi’s position, as she had not labelled anyone who mourned the Queen a racist.

“It was in fact her who experienced the racism of being told to go back where she came from, and you agreed with that tweet,” Nyuon said. “Neither you or Hanson are the victims of racism here.”

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Greens senator Nick McKim labelled Lambie’s original statement “unacceptable”. “Agreeing with a racist who is being racist is a racist act, pure and simple.”

After Lambie’s clarification, McKim replied: “You should have just recanted your original tweet, apologised and pledged to try to be better. Maybe dig up next time?”

Hanson has a long history of racially charged statements, from her first parliamentary speech in 1996 warning Australia was at risk of being “swamped by Asians”, to her re-entry to the Senate in 2016 applying the same warning to Muslims.

Lambie was elected to the Senate in 2013 as part of the Clive Palmer’s Palmer United party, but has since carved out her own independent political career winning re-election and helping bring another Jacqui Lambie Network senator, Tammy Tyrrell, into the Senate.

Earlier in her career, Lambie was outspoken in calling for a royal commission into Islam and has suggested Muslims in favour of sharia law should be deported.

Despite those comments, Lambie has won admirers on the left since her re-election in 2019, often pitting herself against the Morrison government in tight Senate votes.