Back to Back Barries: Is the media giving Pauline Hanson a free pass?
6/19/202637 min
Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry dissect Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club appearance this week and ask: is the leader of One Nation treated differently to other political leaders by the media? They also give their take on Hanson’s attacks on minorities, her pledge to dismantle public broadcasting and they meditate on whether appealing to people’s prejudices will backfire. And also: will the government’s backdown on tax be enough to silence Anthony Albanese’s critics?
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First 90 secondsBarrie Cassidy· Host0:00
[electronic music] This is The Guardian. [upbeat music] I'm Barry Cassidy.
Tony Barry· Host0:11
And I'm Tony Barry.
Barrie Cassidy· Host0:11
Welcome to Back to Back Barrys, a podcast from Guardian Australia. Well, this week, Pauline Hanson did what political leaders do routinely. She fronted the National Press Club and exposed herself to questions for the first time in 30 years of politics. There is a clear measure of how she has transformed the political landscape. She got far more media coverage than most who came before her. And if it's news you were looking for, you got plenty of that. Here's a quick snapshot, and we'll spend a lot more time on this a little later on. But she wants an end to multiculturalism. She wants an end to a lot of things, actually. She wants an end to the SBS. She wants an end to a free ABC, an end to parental leave. "Why should people get paid when they're not working?" she said. She wants an end to pay rises, at least for now, because she says small businesses can't afford it, and just by the way, you can't sack anybody anymore, and workers are always on their mobile phones, and they're lazy. She opposed wage increases just this week for the low-paid childcare workers. She wants new industrial relations laws because, as they stand, they're anti-business. Now, if anybody thinks all of that is a bit harsh, just keep in mind they are her policies. That's how she articulated them at the National Press Club. She announced them. I'm just passing them on. So Tony, if you're a wage earner doing it tough, what's not to like about that?