Posted on December 7, 2006

Hanson Unhappy About ‘Sick Africans’

NineMSN.com (Australia), Dec. 8, 2006

One Nation founder Pauline Hanson says she’s worried that black South Africans infected with AIDS and tuberculosis are allowed into Australia.

Flagging a political comeback at next year’s federal election, Ms Hanson also said she was angry Australians were unable to swim in public baths because of the sensitivities of Muslims.

“You don’t bend over backwards appeasing their demands because the politicians want their vote … unless you change this you will have social incohesion which is already happening in this country,” she told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

“If they don’t want it, then they can go back where they came from.”

Ms Hanson said she was committed to running as an independent in Queensland at the next election, though she had not made up her mind if she would run for the lower house or Senate.

She said she decided to make a political comeback after members of the public had urged her to do so.

“I have still got a lot of issues and I have still got a lot of concerns like a lot of Australians and I think that I would like to voice my opinions and have a say on behalf of the Australian people, to represent them,” she said.

Ms Hanson claimed that federal parliamentary secretary for immigration Andrew Robb had admitted on television that the government was letting in many “black South Africans” with health issues.

“Andrew Robb actually admitted that a few months ago, it was on TV,” she said.

“He indicated there was around about 37 per cent of black South Africans that were coming in with ongoing health issues.”

Ms Hanson said she had been told by a hospital worker of an African woman with AIDS who had given birth to a child with AIDS.

“There’s increasing numbers of TB (tuberculosis) and they have picked up … it could be almost one third that actually carries TB,” she claimed.

“I have got children, grandchildren … I would hate to see anyone who may be subjected to catching TB or AIDS.”

Ms Hanson was jailed in 2003 for fraudulently registering the One Nation party and spent 73 days in prison before her conviction was overturned.

She split from her former party and has spent the past two years writing her autobiography.

Questioned on her concerns about Muslims, Ms Hanson said she was angry that Australians were no longer able to sing Christmas carols in schools or swim in public swimming pools.

“What people are getting all upset about is the fact that you can’t sing Christmas carols in schools because it upsets a certain amount of people,” she said.

“You can’t actually swim in baths because a certain amount of people want their privacy to swim in those baths.

“Swimming baths and pools that have been paid for by the taxpayers over the years and yet they are closed to everyone to use at the same time.”

Ms Hanson said she was also concerned about the government’s new industrial relations laws, the privatisation of government assets and bureaucratic red tape.

“I don’t want to be bowed or beaten or pushed in the corner by politicians who just want to have it their way,” she said.

“These are issues, concerns that I have. I have a right to know the answers.”

Ms Hanson said she would make an official announcement about her comeback next year. She said she would give herself plenty of time to campaign.