Table of Contents
For such a supposedly vicious ‘racist’, Pauline Hanson sure has an unusual appeal for minorities. One Nation have fielded Asian, Indian and Muslim candidates. More notably when, for instance, a delegation of Aboriginal women from remote communities travelled to Canberra to raise awareness about domestic violence, Hanson was the one politician they specifically wished to see. “Because she listens,” they said.
They were more right than they knew: for all their blatherskite about giving Aborigines a ‘voice’, not one Labor or Greens politician bothered listening to these Aboriginal women. Only Hanson, other One Nation and a few Liberal politicians bothered. Hanson’s reputation as someone who listens to and fights for the little guy also recently led her into deepest Western Sydney.
Speaking to Inquirer on Wednesday afternoon, Hanson opened up about meeting a migrant family the day before.
It was a private gathering in the family’s home in western Sydney. There were no cameras. Hanson and her chief of staff James Ashby took no photos either when they visited a Lebanese Maronite Christian family in Greystanes, in the heart of Chris Bowen’s federal seat of McMahon. The family, who took a few photos, wanted to thank Hanson in person.
At issue was the family’s niece in Lebanon, who needed life-saving surgery on a brain tumour that Lebanese doctors refused to treat. Even though the family made clear that they were paying for the surgery, which wouldn’t cost the taxpayer a cent, she was refused a visa three times.
Loui Abraham, the girl’s uncle, contacted Hanson after the Department of Home Affairs rejected three applications to bring the girl to Australia for the surgery.
After verifying the account. Hanson contacted the department. “I didn’t get a response, so I went directly to the minister’s office. Time was going on.”
Hanson met Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite in early February, just days after receiving the email from Abraham.
That doesn’t mean Hanson abandoned the blunt-speaking tough-love for which she is famous.
As they discussed the visa problems over lunch, Loui told his cousin Tony Ibrahim – the girl’s father – that he was the problem.
That was Hanson’s cue to do precisely what we would expect of her. “I said to the father, yes you are the problem, you’re the one that’s overstayed your visa,” Hanson tells Inquirer.
Now, if you believe the legacy media portrayal of Hanson as a racist monster, this would surely be her cue to tell them to get stuffed? Instead, she went to bat for them, on the clear understanding that the family in Lebanon wouldn’t use the girl’s plight as a backdoor migration scam.
Hanson says she promised to get the minister information showing the family’s ties to Lebanon. “And I told him, ‘I even guarantee I’ll take (the girl) to the airport and put her on a plane and wave, Hooray’.”
When the teenager landed in Sydney a few weeks ago, visa approved, the family sent Hanson a photo of her saying “Thank you. She has arrived.” They asked Hanson to come to lunch one day so they could thank her in person.
Why would a family of Lebanese migrants, with a visa overstayer in their ranks, turn to Pauline Hanson, the ‘racist’?
Abraham explains why he contacted Hanson. “I had emailed other politicians and no one responded. I thought, I’m gonna email Hanson because I know she fights for the little guy.”
His email to Hanson on January 24 made clear that the surgery would be at no cost to the taxpayer.
“Yet the immigration minister and the current government have rejected her visa application, along with her mother’s. They have been denied outright,” he wrote in his email to Hanson.
“At the same time, we see our borders allowing many others to arrive without proper processes, access benefits immediately, and place additional strain on the system, often at the expense of hardworking Australians who have paid taxes their entire lives as I have since the age of 16. A child who would cost the government nothing is being turned away due to red tape and political decisions.”
“I said to (Loui), why did you come to me? I’m a senator from Queensland,” Hanson says. “He said: ‘Because everyone knows you’re for the people.’ ”
Though the young girl hasn’t had surgery yet, her uncle pointed to Hanson at Tuesday’s lunch, telling his niece: “This woman has saved your life.”
“The media makes it out that Pauline is a racist etc. If she was that, why would she work as hard as she did to bring a girl from the heart of Lebanon to Australia for lifesaving surgery? Doesn’t sound very racist to me … I would say that she’s a very humble human,” Abraham told Inquirer.
This is what the legacy media, the political establishment and the chattering left simply can’t understand. But a great many ordinary voters do: she’s the real deal.
As Hanson got into an Uber after her lunch with Abraham’s family, a young man, maybe 18, ran to stop the car, saying he heard Hanson was in the street and wanted a photo with her.
Even in migrant-central Western Sydney.
That’s because a great many migrants resent mass immigration and the type of immigrant it attracts, as much as any white Australian ‘redneck’.
Abraham’s email to Hanson in January this year captures why the two major parties are demanding migrants – and their children – unify behind Australian values.
Abraham mentioned his parents, Imad and Maria Abraham who arrived from Lebanon in the early 1960s.
“They worked hard, respected our laws and values, and became proud citizens who contributed to building this country working in the factories in Sydney,” he wrote.
Instead of lobbing up with their hands out and their resentments on their sleeves.
