‘Do not apologise for being white’: Hanson takes aim at privilege and trans rights

Updated July 19, 2026 — 9:36am,first published July 18, 2026 — 5:45amLondon: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has told a right-wing conference in Britain that Australian authorities are “stupid” for giving rights to transgender people, as she blasted the concept of white privilege and called for cuts to migration.Hanson said Australia should learn from the UK in defining a woman to exclude trans people who identified as female, singling out an Australian decision that recognised discrimination against a transgender woman.In her speech to the crowd, Hanson blasted Australian authorities for being “stupid”.Luca MarinoBut her address to the Conservative Political Action Committee in London drew a modest crowd, with only about 130 people turning up to a hotel function room that was less than one-third full.Rows of chairs were empty during Hanson’s heavily promoted address, in her most significant appearance in Britain after her holiday in Sicily with mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.Hanson’s address on Saturday morning in London – concluding at about 7pm, AEST – largely repeated her remarks to a dinner at the event the previous night, which were leaked to this masthead.But she added an attack on trans rights to her second address, telling the British audience that Australia was doing psychological harm to young people.“There are only two sexes: male and female. That’s all,” she said.“We have men getting involved in female sports. They’re actually men. We have a big problem.”Hanson argued that Australia was heading in the wrong direction after the Federal Court decision in favour of Roxanne Tickle, who took the company behind the app, Giggle for Girls, and its founder, Sall Grover, to the Federal Court in 2022, alleging they breached Commonwealth discrimination laws.The Full Court of the Federal Court found in favour of Tickle in May, dismissing an appeal by Grover against a 2024 court decision in favour of Tickle. The court found Giggle and Grover had excluded Tickle from the app on the basis of her gender-related appearance, and this amounted to direct discrimination on the ground of her gender identity.Similar issues have sparked enormous debate in Britain, where the Supreme Court made a pivotal decision on trans rights last year by ruling in favour of a Scottish women’s group that rejected claims from trans people who sought to be defined as women. The court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.“You got it right, and I’m glad you did,” Hanson told the CPAC event. “We don’t learn. We’re too stupid over there.“There’s going to be so much psychological damage that’s going to be done to our future generations.”Her remarks are likely to inflame debate on the sensitive subject and outrage trans rights groups that see the UK decision as a dangerous precedent on equality law and do not want it to be replicated by Australian courts.In her morning address, Hanson called again for cuts to migration and said she did not want Australia to have Sharia law, child marriage or the wearing of burqas in public.Bristling at the idea that she had no real policy solutions on migration, Hanson said she wanted to cut the migrant intake to 130,000 people per year.Hanson addressed a crowd of about 130 people. Luca MarinoWhile the audience was relatively small, the CPAC attendees warmly welcomed Hanson’s remarks including her declaration that net zero climate targets were a “scam” and should be scrapped.CPAC UK chair Liz Truss, a former UK prime minister, introduced Hanson as a potential leader of Australia given One Nation’s standing in the polls.Hanson told the audience that she could lead the Australian government after the next election.“One Nation has a very good opportunity at the next election to possibly be government, be opposition, or hold the balance of power,” she said.“That’s a huge responsibility – a responsibility I’m prepared to take on.“I’m not there for the accolades or for the money or for my ego or any other reason.”Pauline Hanson in the audience at the conservative CPAC conference in London on Friday.Luca MarinoHanson ended her address with a call for people to reject talk of “white privilege”.“Until we stand up and fight… we’re going to be in hell a place,” she said.“And our children and grandchildren will never understand, you know, what our history is about, where we belong.“And do not apologise for being white.“I’m sick of hearing about white privilege. We’re human beings. We must learn from the experience of the past, by the mistakes that have happened.”Hanson posted a picture of herself in London meeting far-right politician Nigel Farage.FacebookHanson did not take questions from the media before or after her address, and her dinner remarks were closed to the media.Earlier, she was backed by British right-wing populist Nigel Farage after they spoke in the VIP room at the CPAC conference, along with Rinehart.Farage, who is leading the polls with his Reform UK party, heaped praise on Hanson for her staying power in politics, but he took issue with her decision to sit down for a podcast with far-right activist Tommy Robinson.One Nation leader Pauline Hanson with chief of staff James Ashby (left) at CPAC Great Britain 2026.Luca MarinoHanson and Rinehart arrived in London to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the One Nation leader was given a front-row seat to hear Farage address the summit on Friday afternoon (about 1.30am on Saturday AEST).While Hanson’s address drew a modest audience, the seats were full for Farage and dozens of people stood at the back.Rinehart joined the gathering, wearing a pink cowboy hat, and met the Reform UK leader backstage to show her support for his plan to slash migration and stop asylum seeker boats.After a political storm in Australia over their luxury holiday at a fashion show in Italy in recent days, Hanson and Rinehart avoided the media by joining VIP speakers in a closed-off area guarded by security staff.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks at the summit.Luca MarinoSpeaking to this masthead outside the event, Farage criticised the Liberal Party and expressed support for Hanson instead.“She’s quite remarkable – she never goes away, she just keeps on going,” he said.“She’s very clever on social media and she got it years ago, in a way that the Liberal Party of Australia didn’t. And I think that slow build has been really, really impressive.“The Australian Liberal Party has just lost its way completely.”Farage sent a warning, however, over Hanson’s one-hour podcast with Robinson, who is intensely controversial because of his convictions for assault and his history of abrasive commentary against Muslims.“It wouldn’t have been my choice,” Farage said.Hanson’s opponents in Australia have sharply criticised her decision to talk to Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and there have been signs of dissent within One Nation over how the podcast came about.Hanson’s top adviser, James Ashby, has argued the meeting with Robinson was a suggestion from the Seven Network, which was preparing a report on Hanson’s UK visit, but the TV network rejected this version of events.Ashby joined Hanson at CPAC in the front row to hear Farage, alongside Mercedes Schlapp, a speaker at the London conference and a director of communications at the White House during Donald Trump’s first term as US president.Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart in the crowd.Luca MarinoHanson also met Matt Schlapp, the husband of Mercedes and the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which runs the CPAC events.Farage said his policy plan drew on Australia’s experience in stopping asylum seeker boats under former prime minister Tony Abbott, and he said a Reform government could do the same in the English Channel.The key, he said, would be to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to stop challenges to tougher asylum seeker rules.Hanson was gave the main address at a dinner on Friday night (early on Saturday AEST) at a five-star hotel near the O2 arena east of London on the Thames River.She sat with CPAC chair and former British prime minister Liz Truss at the top table at the dinner, according to a source inside the room, but the event was closed to the press and there was no broadcast of her speech.Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. 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