Canberra - Arab Today
Right-wing firebrand politician Pauline Hanson, who opposes Muslim immigration, has a realistic chance of returning to Australia’s Parliament in July elections, experts warned Tuesday.
Hanson became one of Australia’s most controversial politicians in a generation when she used her first speech to Parliament in 1996 to attack the country’s nondiscriminatory immigration policy. The independent lawmaker warned that Australians were “in danger of being swamped by Asians.”
She was dumped by voters after a single three-year term in 1998 and has made several failed attempts to be elected to federal and state Parliaments.
But experts agree the 61-year-old’s chances of winning a Senate seat in her home state of Queensland are enhanced because the July 2 poll is a rare so-called double-dissolution election, in which candidates need a smaller share of the votes to win a seat. In a normal election, only half the Senate seats in each state are open for election.
Source : Arab News