Pauline Hanson apologises for resurfaced comment calling First Australians ‘the most primitive race on Earth’

Pauline Hanson has attempted to contain fallout from comments in which she labelled First Australians “the most primitive race on Earth”, saying she “regrets” the remark but will not commit to a full apology.

The comments re‑emerged this week, prompting anger among Indigenous leaders and renewed scrutiny of the One Nation leader’s long‑running criticism of race‑based policy.

Appearing on News24 — the rebranded Sky News — on Tuesday, Hanson insisted her intent was not to cause harm.

“I regret saying that because I don’t want to upset people,” she told host Kieran Gilbert.

“That’s not my intentions. That wasn’t my intentions, to hurt people. My intentions are, Kieran, to pull people together.”

The comments were made on the conservative-leaning Jamie J podcast in 2025, in which the topics of children learning Indigenous languages and First Nations culture were discussed.

Pressed repeatedly on whether she would apologise, Hanson offered a conditional response.

“If I have offended people by using that, yes, I will apologise for that,” she said. “But, I will not back away from what needs to be discussed.”

She argued the “primitive” comment referred to the era of British settlement, saying she was “not talking in those terms now”.

Hanson shifted to her long‑held claims about social disadvantage in Indigenous communities, saying she has been criticised in parliament whenever she raises them.

“I want to address the rape that’s going on, the Indigenous are the most people in our prisons … we’ve got alcohol abuse, we’ve got domestic violence,” she said.

“Every time I raise this issue on the floor of parliament, one of the other senators calls me racist or the Greens get up and call me racist. I will not back down from raising the issues that needs to be talked about and debated in this nation, and I will continue to continue to do that.”

“I’m called ‘white privilege’ and all the rest of it, and a lot of Australians feel that way, too,” she said.

“I wish this would just be buried and put in the background instead of [the] victimisation goes on all the time.”