Pauline Hanson is making a political comeback, running for election in New South Wales later this month. -- ST FILE PHOTO
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIAN anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson confirmed on Wednesday she is attempting a political comeback by standing in a state election this month.
In a surprise move, Mrs Hanson - who once famously warned that Australia was at risk of being 'swamped by Asians' - is running for an upper house seat with a group of independents in the New South Wales poll on March 26.
The former One Nation party chief told Fairfax Radio Network that it was 'in the people's interest of New South Wales to ensure that I am on the floor', though she conceded that it would be a 'battle' to get elected.
Mrs Hanson drew international condemnation but briefly won domestic support in the 1990s with her anti-immigration and trade protection policies, before losing her seat in 1998. She spent several weeks in jail in 2003 for fraudulently spending electoral funds before the judgment was overturned. She insisted on Wednesday that she was 'not racist'.
'No one can ever comment or make a comment on any racist statement I have ever said,' she told the radio show. 'I have... as an Australian... a right to question immigration and multiculturalism, which I don't believe is helping our country.'
Mrs Hanson said she believed in 'people coming here, assimilating, becoming Australians' and abiding by Australian laws. 'I don't think there's anything wrong with that,' she said. -- AFP
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