Pauline Hanson offers qualified apologies to Indigenous Australians and Anthony AlbaneseBy political reporter Ewa Staszewska

Posted Tue 15 Sep 2026 at 2:27pmTue 15 Sep 2026 at 2:27pmTue 15 Sep 2026 at 2:27pm

In short:

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has offered two qualified apologies, including to Indigenous Australians who she labelled “the most primitive race on Earth”.

Senator Hanson says she apologises if she has offended people by using the term “primitive”.

She also addressed criticising the amount of time that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s mother Maryanne lived in public housing, arguing the remarks were not “derogatory”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has offered qualified apologies for labelling Indigenous Australians “the most primitive race on Earth” and criticising the prime minister’s late mother.

Senator Hanson faced widespread condemnation on Monday after the remarks from conservative-leaning Jamie J podcast came to light, where she criticised the amount of focus on Indigenous history in the school curriculum.

“Sorry they’re the most primitive race on Earth and we’re supposed to be holding them up and saying what they’ve achieved. They’ve achieved nothing,” she said last September.

Politicians from across the divide swiftly rebuked the comments, among them Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, who said they were “derogatory” and “completely racist” and urged her to apologise.

In her first public remarks since, Senator Hanson said she did not mean to cause offence by the comments.

“If I’ve offended people by using that, yes, I will apologise for that,” she told reporters.

“I’ve always advocated, we are Australians all together and should be all treated equally on a needs basis, not about race. And until we actually do that, we’re not going to move over what’s happened in the past.”

On Monday, several Indigenous leaders expressed their “disappointment” over the “primitive” label, calling Senator Hanson’s claims not only “false” but demonstrating ignorance.

Indigenous author and human rights activist Thomas Mayo was among them, arguing that that Senator Hanson’s view is not shared by Australians.

“Many Australians have learnt that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples built sophisticated systems of law, governance, culture, trade, and land management over tens of thousands of years,” he said.

“We have survived invasion, dispossession and every attempt to erase us. We are still here and will always remain in the rich tapestry of Australian identity.”

Speaking to News24 earlier today, Senator Hanson claimed “[I] put my foot in my mouth” and that the comments about First Nations people were referring to the past, when Australia was colonised.

“If we go back at the time of settlement in Australia, they were primitive compared to what the settlers that came out here from England, that type of thing. But I’m not talking those terms now. It’s not about now,” Senator Hanson said.

“I regret saying that because I don’t want to upset people. That’s not my intentions. That wasn’t my intention to hurt people.”

Calls for Hanson to apologise to PM

Senator Hanson was also asked if she regretted saying it was “not on” for Anthony Albanese’s mother Maryanne, who suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, to have spent much of her life in housing commission.

“I don’t think my comments were derogatory towards his mother at all. I was referring to house commission at that time. So if he’s taken offence to it, well, I’m sorry for that,” she said.

The criticism of Mr Albanese’s late mother, who died in 2002, prompted calls from several politicians for Senator Hanson to apologise to the prime minister.

Mr Albanese has been open about his upbringing in public housing in Sydney’s inner west, repeated references that Senator Hanson labelled “pathetic” on a podcast with Karl Stefanovic earlier this year.

“I actually grew up in a street where we had housing commission houses there. It was a helping hand to those people, but they had jobs. And they worked,” she told Stefanovic.

“Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 [years] — and he said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years.”

In a fierce defence of his mother on Sunday morning, Mr Albanese said he was “stunned” by the attack, recalling a woman of “great character”.

“If Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me, then that’s fine, but my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson’s league, way out of it,” he said.