Pauline Hanson apologises over Indigenous comments

Australian far-right leader Pauline Hanson offered a qualified apology on Tuesday after describing Indigenous Australians as the “most primitive race on Earth”.

“If I've offended people by using that, then I will apologise for that,” Hanson told reporters in Canberra. The Queensland senator and One Nation leader later told News24 she was “not the most eloquent speaker” and said she regretted the remark because she did not want to upset people.

The comments drew condemnation across Australian politics after they resurfaced in media coverage on Monday. Hanson had been asked about the teaching of Indigenous Australian history in schools and questioned what Indigenous Australians had done over “supposedly 60,000 years”. She also said they “never invented the wheel” and had “achieved nothing”.

Indigenous affairs minister Malarndirri McCarthy called the remarks “completely racist” and “outrageous”. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who is Indigenous, said she was disappointed and that “all decent Australians” would condemn the comments.

Hanson also said Tuesday she was sorry if she had offended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with recent remarks about his late mother living in public housing. Albanese had condemned those comments as “mean and nasty”.

One Nation has risen in opinion polls this year. A Resolve Strategic poll for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age released Sunday put the party at 27 percent support, one percentage point behind the ruling Labor Party.

Indigenous Australians' ancestors have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years. Indigenous Australians have average life expectancies about eight years shorter than the rest of the population and are far more likely to be incarcerated or die in custody than other Australians.