TV veteran Sandra Sully has been forced to correct herself during a live broadcast after an unfortunate slip of the tongue when announcing Pauline Hanson’s court battle.
While reading the Monday evening addition of 10 News First, Sully accidentally said Senator Hanson was fighting claims she was a “rapist”, instead of racist, in her current court battle with Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi.
“Plus, Pauline Hanson in court,” she said. “Why the One Nation leader has been forced to fight claims that she is a rapist.
“Racist, I apologise. And correct, racist.”
Senator Hanson is involved in a Federal Court case where she is defending her words after telling Senator Faruqi to “p**s off back to Pakistan”.
The dispute between Hanson and Faruqi escalated following the death of Queen Elizabeth II when Faruqi tweeted a statement slamming the British Empire, describing it as “racist” and built on “stolen lives, land, and wealth of colonised peoples”.
Senator Hanson has argued deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi is “a hypocrite and only against certain forms of racism” as she defended her comments in the Federal Court.
Senator Hanson’s legal representation presented Senator Faruqi during cross-examination with a historical tweet by her son and The Age’s culture editor Osman Faruqi, along with a since deleted Instagram post in which Senator Faruqi is standing alongside a protester holding a sign that said to “keep the world clean” alongside an image of the Israeli national flag above a rubbish bin.
The social media materials were posited to illustrate a disregard for what Senator Hanson’s representative argued was racism against white people.
Senator Faruqi’s counterparts labelled Senator Hanson a “prolific sayer of racist things” who provoked a “pile-on” against her in the opening statement of their racial discrimination bid before Sydney’s Federal Court.
Senator Faruqi first took Senator Hanson to the Human Rights Commission over the tweet, before suing the One Nation leader.
The deputy Greens leader contended she had faced “a torrent of abusive (messages)” in the wake of Senator Hanson’s statement.
Senator Faruqi has accessed the parliamentary workplace support service for more than a year since Ms Hanson’s statement, the court was told on Monday.
“The tweet added to years and years of experiencing racist speech and racist acts … this was different. It came from a colleague, it came publicly and it unleashed, as she expected it would the moment she saw it, a torrent of abuse that made her doubt her place in Australia,” Senator Faruqi’s chief representative Saul Holt KC said.
“The tweet was making a brown, Muslim migrant into a lesser person.
“(It was) a message of exclusion, just on the face of the words used, from the nation delivered to a migrant … because she is a migrant.”
Mr Holt said the statement was also a trigger for “vicarious racism” that could negatively impact those of similar origin to Senator Faruqi.
Federal Court justice Angus Morkel Stewart is presiding over the five-day hearing.
Senator Hanson has enlisted Sue Chrysanthou, known for representing former Attorney-General Christian Porter and Channel 10’s Lisa Wilkinson.
Ms Chrysanthou told the court the evidence tendered by Senator Faruqi showed she had faced abuse over her comments from the media and public prior to Senator Hanson’s response.
Senator Faruqi’s sought damages include a $150,000 donation from Senator Hanson to the Sweatshop Literacy Movement, her enrolment in anti-racism training at her own cost, and her publishing an apology tweet.
Both senators have partially funded their legal fees through crowd-funding.
The hearing will continue on Tuesday, when Senator Hanson is slated for cross-examination.