Pauline Hanson Distrusts That Muslim Immigration Poll, Says 49% Is Too Low

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Published

September 22, 2016

The recent Essential Research poll claiming a solid 49% of Australians support a ban on Muslim immigration is… Well, look.

For those of us who believe the Skittle-centric arguments used by right wing politicians around the world are faulty at best, it was a reminder that rightly or wrongly, a staggering percentage of Australians live in fear.

However, some have questioned the poll’s conclusiveness. Opponents have said the 1000-odd responses are too few to draw any meaningful conclusions from, despite pollsters declaring otherwise.

Tonight, the poll faced a new opponent: One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, who made a Muslim immigration ban a core tenet of her election campaign. The difference between her and the poll’s other detractors is she thinks the percentage should be a lot higher.

Speaking on The Bolt Report, an adamant Hanson declared “I tell you something: I believe it’s a lot higher than that, because people would have been in fear to answer the question – the polling – because they don’t know who’s taking the call, and they don’t want to be registered of what their views are.”

.@PaulineHansonOz thinks a lot more than 49 percent of Australians want to ban Muslim immigrants. #theboltreport https://t.co/hHXWHDb9Yl

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 22, 2016

That’s an interesting stance to take, but you’d also think it could be dismissed quite easily: presumably, Essential Research would have made it perfectly clear who the hell they were once they got through, and people give their opinions on polls for the express purpose of having them registered.

None of that changes the fact Hanson, and many like her across the nation, obviously feels like Islam in Australia is a serious threat. That in itself is a serious bloody issue.

Speaking of feelings, Hanson went on to say she hadn’t advocated hate speech in her campaign, before immediately dropping a series of second-hand, unverifiable anti-Muslim anecdotes, on the pretense that this is what Australian communities are feeling.

And she even ended her spiel with the phrase “they don’t like it.”

.@PaulineHansonOz on why so many Australian’s voted with her in the Essential Poll. #theboltreport @SkyNewsAust https://t.co/0oXvHB0MsH

— The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) September 22, 2016

Hoo boy.

Source and photo: Sky News Australia / Twitter.