Look, a Q&A with Pauline Hanson was always going to be… something. Q&A ain’t no Frost/Nixon, but it’s generally a change from the incredibly softball questions Hanson is lobbed on breakfast shows.
As we posted last night, she just about lost it when she found out Sam Dastyari is a Muslim born in Iran, giving the kind of withering glare that one would reserve only for their most hated enemy. She also denied the suggestion that Indonesia is the region’s largest democracy, which seems like an odd claim to make.
But despite a raging protest outside, the mood in the audience was actually far more genteel. One Muslim man in particular, psychologist Mohammed Attai, asked Pauline whether she would be willing to visit his home and dine with his family.
.@PaulineHansonOz: Would you be willing to take my offer for lunch or dinner, with me and my Muslim family? #QandA https://t.co/l5axoI5312
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 18, 2016
As Pauline has rejected Dastyari’s offer of a halal snack pack in the past, Attai was careful to suggest that though his family would be eating halal food, Hanson would not be compelled to do so – instead, he offered her a ‘haram snack pack’.
Clearly not getting the joke, Pauline asked what specifically was in a haram snack pack.
Look, I’m never going to be one to say that just being nice to Pauline and sitting down and talking it all out is the solution. Hanson is a far-right, populist agitator who has her grievances and is unlikely to be talked out of them, quite honestly.
But it’s fun to see her reflexively reject an olive branch or a display of kindness like that. It makes it pretty clear that regardless of where you come from, she’s not particularly arguing in good faith.
Source: Q&A.
Photo: Q&A.
