Pauline Hanson is trying to stop a Greens senator attempting to prove the One Nation leader had a decades-long tendency to engage in racist views as part of an upcoming defamation trial.
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Mehreen Faruqi has sued over a "hateful" September 2022 tweet by Senator Hanson, who wrote that she should: "Pack (her) bags and piss off back to Pakistan."
Senator Hanson's tweet came in response to the Greens deputy leader's comments following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Senator Faruqi wrote she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a "racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples".
In an upcoming Federal Court defamation hearing, scheduled for May, she wishes to use statements made by nine individuals about their reaction to Senator Hanson's tweet.
One woman who said she was negatively impacted by the social media post added she was affected by Senator Hanson's maiden speech to parliament in 1996, when she said Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians".
Top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing the One Nation head, on Thursday urged Justice Angus Stewart to toss these statements ahead of the upcoming trial, saying they were irrelevant to any issue in the case.
Senator Faruqi's proposed use of almost 100 comments by Senator Hanson over the past 30 years to show she had a tendency to engage in racist views is also under attack, as are three expert reports about racism more generally.
Ms Chrysanthou said the wide-ranging evidence was of little probative value and would waste everyone's time through lengthy cross-examination and investigations into past statements that did not matter.
"This is not a royal commission into my client," she said.
"The question is what she did on that day (she sent the tweet) and what she was thinking when she said it, not what she was thinking 30 years ago or said 30 years ago."
Justice Stewart questioned whether some of the statements given as tendency evidence were really irrelevant.
"I think there's too many Asians coming into this country," he said, quoting one of Senator Hanson's past statements.
"That's pretty telling, isn't it?"
Ms Chrysanthou said she hoped to prove Senator Faruqi was a hypocrite because of her own views and behaviour towards others of different races.
Senator Faruqi's barrister Jessie Taylor told the court the evidence provided was orthodox and should be admitted at the upcoming trial.
For example, the nine statements showed the tweet was likely to offend, insult, embarrass or intimidate members of minority groups and in fact did so, she argued.
These statements provided "personal, intimate and human stories" by those impacted by racism, the barrister said.
Three expert reports giving scientific and academic evidence that racism was harmful should also be admitted, Ms Taylor said.
Justice Stewart is expected to deliver judgment on the dispute soon.
Australian Associated Press
