Serious security concerns have been raised after far-left activists were able to sabotage a speech by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
As Ms Hanson was addressing the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday afternoon, a banner rolled down behind her saying “I opposed a pay rise for workers while I took a pay rise myself”.
Ms Hanson continued speaking while members of the audience could be heard saying “that’s disgusting” before building staff removed the banner from what appeared to be a motorised projector screen.
The extremists sabotaged Senator Pauline Hanson today at the Press Club.
Someone with access to the building installed this sign behind the stage. It rolled down as she was speaking.
Senator Hanson is not safe, everyone dropped the ball, what if it was a bomb?
More needs to… pic.twitter.com/nV5lR4QIz9
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) June 17, 2026
The incident sparked anger from One Nation supporters and other MPs, including United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet, who said it was a worrying security failure.
“Someone with access to the building installed this sign behind the stage. It rolled down as she was speaking,” he wrote on X.
“Senator Hanson is not safe, everyone dropped the ball, what if it was a bomb?
“More needs to be done to protect Australia first politicians from the radical extremists. If our security isn’t taken more seriously I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time until something terrible happens to one of us.”
Upset commenters called the stunt an “inside job” and said “investigations need to be conducted, but they won’t be”.
Far-left campaign group GetUp later claimed credit for the banner, and CEO Paul Ferris said: “One Nation has consistently opposed wage rises, affordable child care, increases to the aged pension, and housing affordability measures. We thought the occasion deserved some honesty. So we provided it.”
During her speech Ms Hanson reiterated her concerns with Muslim immigration, saying her primary concern was with radical Islam, pledged to sack the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, called far-left gender ideology an “insurgency”, called for free speech to be enshrined in the Constitution, and said the government had presided over an “immigration catastrophe”.
“Do Australians feel that the nation is losing its identity along with its values? We all know the answer to that,” she said.
“Under the failed policy of multiculturalism, all cultures are allowed equivalence to ours. Surely opposing that is not racist, it’s common sense.
“Undeniably immigration or immigration policy has our country in the state of crisis. At the centre of this crisis is the utterly flawed policy of multiculturalism. We cannot be a multicultural society.”
Header image: The banner rolling down as Ms Hanson was speaking (ABC News).
