Lidia Thorpe issues public ‘apology’ after Pauline Hanson threatened to SUE her over ‘convicted racist’ comment

Lidia Thorpe has issued a public apology of sorts to Pauline Hanson for calling her a ‘convicted racist’.

The One Nation leader had issued smear warnings to Ms Thorpe and Channel Nine’s Today show after the senator branded her “a convicted racist” on the program on November 28.

The letters, titled ‘urgent defamation’, asked Ms Thorpe to apologize to Ms Hanson or face legal action.

The senator apologized on Monday.

“My comments about Hanson last week referred to the federal court ruling finding that she racially defamed a senator, breached the Racial Discrimination Act and exhibited a strong form of racism,” Ms Thorpe wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“To clarify, I was mistaken when I said she was ‘convicted’ because it was a civil case.

“Sorry about that Pauline!”

Lawyers Gillis Delaney sent Ms Thorpe the letters urging her to apologize for the ‘irresponsible’ comments.

Ms Hanson’s legal team sent a letter to Ms Thorpe last week threatening legal action

“It is highly irresponsible of you to use this language on national television. It could not have happened innocently given how obviously false your claim is,” the letters said.

They continued: ‘You are a public servant who has a platform that must be used responsibly. Part of that involves urgently correcting yourself when you make a mistake.”

A statement from Ms Hanson added: ‘Media outlets repeating Lidia Thorpe’s false claim that Senator Pauline Hanson has been ‘convicted of racism’ have been warned they may face legal action.”

Ms Thorpe’s comments related to a Federal Court ruling on November 1 that Ms Hanson had racially vilified Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi in a post on X by telling her to “go back to Pakistan”.

Ms Hanson’s legal team has appealed the verdict, saying her sledge was not racist as she had previously told another senator to ‘go back’ to New Zealand.

Her team also claimed that Ms Hanson’s comment could not be considered racial slurs because she did not mention Ms Mehreen’s skin colour.

Ms Hanson is using almost $700,000 donated by supporters to help fund her legal team. She will be represented by leading lawyer Sue Chrysathanou and her lawyer Anthony Jeffries, who is also representing Lisa Wilkinson in the defamation trial against Bruce Lehrmann.

The comments were prompted by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi ‘going back to Pakistan’ in an earlier post on X.

Judge Angus Stewart’s findings on November 1 found that Ms Hanson’s post on

However, Ms Hanson’s attack was not racist as “the attack was only directed at Ms Faruqi, there is no explicit or implicit reference to colour,” the judge ruled.

Independent Senator Fatima Payman also recently mocked Ms Hanson, accusing her of racism and claiming she was sowing hatred and division.

Ms Payman, who left Labor earlier this year to form her own party, was sparked by a document Ms Hanson filed questioning whether Ms Payman’s Afghan citizenship disqualified her from serving in parliament.

Section 44c of the Australian Constitution prevents anyone who holds citizenship of another country from sitting in parliament.

Ms Payman was born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, but gained Australian citizenship in 2005.

However, this did not automatically lead to the revocation of her Afghan citizenship, raising questions about her suitability to serve in the Senate.

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