Paul Hogan blasts Pauline Hanson as ‘a pelican and so racist’ as One Nation polling takes a hit
The 86-year-old actor has lashed out with an fiery response after being dragged into this fierce political debate over local culture.
Paul Hogan, the Aussie actor that Pauline Hanson has described as representative of her big dreams for a monoculture, has described her as “a pelican” and “so racist.”
The comedian, 86, has reacted after the One Nation leader called for the end of multiculturalism in Australia.
“Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston,” she told the Senate. “These are the essential features of Australian monoculture, and there’s nothing remotely exclusionary about them.”
But the Aussie actor, 86, who now lives in Los Angeles, was less than impressed with getting dragged into it and isn’t a fan of One Nation.
“She’s living in the past, obviously,” Mr Hogan told The Australian Financial Review.
“I’ve always had a very simple rule: What makes a good Australian is wanting to be one.”
“She’s a pelican, yeah. Outrageous, so racist. It sounds very much like this stupid boofhead over here, Trump.”
Hogan grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney and famously spent years working as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“My old gang was an Assyrian, a Thursday Islander, a Welshman, an Aboriginal, a couple of Irish convicts. It was the same cosmopolitan types everywhere I worked, Italians, Greek, Irish, Chinese, a bit of everybody there. That’s the way we were.
“How can it be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who as far as we know have been [in Australia] for 60,000 years.”
“I got there from a bad Viking. He went to Ireland and raped and pillaged and that’s why there was blonde hair, blue-eyed, Irish people. And then, of course, the ones he bred turned out to be thieves, so they went off to the prison down under.”
The actor said he hoped to return to Australia before he died.
“I’m only here for my son. When he’s settled, I can’t wait to get back. I don’t have a time scale, but I want to die in Australia – in a multicultural Australia!”
Taylor trounced by Hanson in latest newspoll
He’s the incredible shrinking man of Aussie politics. Liberal leader Angus Taylor might look the part with his RM Williams, blue ties and big hair, but the number of voters who back him is tiny.
According to the latest Newspoll, a runaway train of negative media coverage over the May budget followed by some backflips has left the Prime Minister inexplicably experiencing a modest bounce back.
Meanwhile, the punch-drunk Liberals are still crawling around on their hands and knees.
According to the latest Newspoll conducted for The Australian, primary vote support for Labor increased from 30 per cent to 33 per cent.
That suggests a string of carve outs for small business and backdowns over a so-called widow’s tax are paying dividends, with the Labor Party finally ahead of One Nation again, which fell from 31 to 29 per cent.
But one of the most striking elements of the poll is the woeful performance of the Liberal Party under Angus Taylor.
‘This cannot go on’
The Coalition recorded a new rock-bottom of 17 per cent, with the Greens (13 per cent) and others (eight per cent).
In fact, Mr Taylor’s latest results in Newspoll are worse than Sussan Ley’s when he knocked her off as leader in February.
At the time the wise-heads in the Liberal Party tut-tutted about and insisted her leadership could not stand, insisting that Mr Taylor would do a better job.
The hidden flaw that could destroy Pauline Hanson
”This cannot go on. “If it goes on, there’ll be nothing left of the Liberal Party by the next election,” Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said.
Convinced in part by Senator Patterson’s fine words, the Liberals’ first female leader was sent on her way.
She promptly retired from politics leaving Mr Taylor with a by-election in Farrer, which the Liberal Party lost to One Nation.
But four months into his tenure in the top job what Senator Patterson insisted “could not go on” has only got worse.
In the February 2026 Newspoll just before the leadership spill where Angus Taylor replaced Sussan Ley, the Coalition’s primary vote plunged to a historic low of 18 per cent.
Now after one of the most controversial budgets in decades and broken promises over capital gains tax, the Liberals’ primary vote under Angus Taylor is 17 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s record low net approval rating of minus 24 has improved to minus 17, albeit with 57 per cent of voters still dissatisfied.
Satisfaction with Angus Taylor has crashed to his lowest level since he replaced Sussan Ley in February, with 31 per cent of Australians satisfied with the Opposition Leader’s performance, compared with 51 per cent dissatisfied and 18 per cent uncommitted.
The Newspoll has even started offering Senator Hanson was included as an option for prime minister, with Mr Taylor finishing in third place.
Asked to rank the three leaders in order from highest to lowest preference, Mr Albanese claimed support from 49 per cent of voters, ahead of Senator Hanson (31 per cent) and Mr Taylor (20 per cent).
Nearly half of female voters backed Mr Albanese, compared with around one in three who backed Senator Hanson. Just one in five voters picked Mr Taylor.
Older voters and those who have attended TAFE who are not university educated are more likely to back Senator Hanson.
The Prime Minister has a clear advantage among voters aged under 50 and Aussies with a university education.
Antidote to anger
Speaking on the ABC Insiders program Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was a tough time to be an incumbent government.
“The pace of change is accelerating, the global and generational pressures are intensifying, and people have got legitimate concerns about where they fit in that, and then we’ve got the anger industry and parties of the populist right trying to make that worse rather than trying to make that better,” Dr Chalmers said.
“People understand, as we understand in our government, that the status quo is not working for people, particularly in the economy, but in our societies more broadly. And once you come to that conclusion, once you acknowledge what I think is a fact, then you’ve got two choices: to try and capitalise on it, as the three right‑wing parties are trying to do in Australia, or try to address it, as we are doing.”
Leader-in-waiting
If the Liberals move to dump Angus Taylor before the next election, Liberal leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie is the next cab off the rank.
He hit the headlines this week telling the Coalition he will never “bend the knee” to One Nation as he revealed he has been forced to upgrade his security.
He blamed an orchestrated campaign against him fuelled by One Nation and its supporters.
It follows One Nation’s attacks on Mr Hastie, a former Special Air Service (SAS) officer, after he gave evidence at Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial.
“I would rather get taken out in a box than bend the knee to One Nation,” Mr Hastie told his Coalition colleagues.
“I will never surrender to One Nation, and we will do them, and do them slowly.”
’Monoculture’ row
In parliament, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese targeted the Coalition following Liberal leader Angus Taylor’s failure to back multiculturalism in a press conference.
Asked about One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s vision for a “monocultural” nation and whether he backed multiculturalism, Mr Taylor told reporters they were “all vague words”.
“There’s all these vague words running around, but I tell you what, the one thing I want all of us to share is those core Australian values,” Mr Taylor said.
“We can have people from all over the world, of all races and religions in this country, but they must share those core values. I don’t know how much simpler it can be than that.
“We’ve been very clear on this commitment to our parliamentary democracy, a commitment to the rule of law, a commitment to our basic freedoms, a commitment to equal respect and dignity of all Australians. That’s what we believe in.”
But in parliament, the Prime Minister accused the Liberal Party of choosing “irrelevance” by failing to engage with the government’s CGT tax reforms that will now pass with the support of the Greens.
“Although it must be said that the member for Canning has said in his party room that he wouldn’t bend the knee to One Nation, a real contrast with the bloke, the current leader of the opposition, that when asked a question about monoculturalism four times, couldn’t give an answer,’’ Mr Albanese said.
‘Playing footsies’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, responding to a question from independent Bob Katter accused the Liberals of “playing footsies” with One Nation.
“If you have a look at the quite ridiculous answer, for example, that the leader of the opposition gave to a very simple question about monoculture today, you can see that what’s going on over there,’’ he said.
“One of the reasons why, one of the reasons why the Liberal Party is dying in his arms, Mr. Speaker, is because his efforts to out One Nation, One Nation are becoming increasingly pathetic.”