Arab News | Australian far-right leader sorry over ‘primitive’ Indigenous comments

SYDNEY: Australian far-right leader Pauline Hanson offered a rare but qualified apology on Tuesday after she described the country’s Indigenous people as “primitive”.

For years a political outsider, Hanson’s One Nation has surged this year to become one of Australia’s most popular parties, according to opinion polls.

Long known for racist and inflammatory statements about minorities, Hanson drew outrage from across the political spectrum on Monday for describing Indigenous Australians as the “most primitive race on Earth”.

She told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday that “if I’ve offended people by using that, then I will apologise for that”.

The senator for Queensland said in a separate interview with News24 that she was “not the most eloquent speaker”.

“I’ve always put my foot in my mouth in the way I come out and say things,” she said.

“I regret saying that because I don’t want to upset people. That wasn’t my intention to hurt people.”

Indigenous Australians, whose ancestors have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years, have average life expectancies about eight years shorter than the rest of the population.

Several factors contribute to the disparity, with chronic health issues, higher poverty rates, more limited access to healthcare in some communities and complex socio-economic causes often blamed.

Indigenous people are also far more likely to be incarcerated or die in custody than other Australians.

Hanson also said on Tuesday she was sorry if she had offended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with recent comments in which she disparaged the leader’s late mother for living in public housing.

Albanese condemned the “mean and nasty” remarks, which sparked calls from an opposition lawmaker to “leave mums out of it”.

Hanson’s long history of provocative comments appears to have done little to dent her popularity.

An opinion poll conducted by Resolve Strategic on behalf of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers released on Sunday showed 27 percent of Australians would vote for Hanson’s party — one percentage point behind the ruling Labor Party.