Hollywood actor Paul Hogan has strongly criticised One Nation leader Pauline Hanson after she invoked his iconic Crocodile Dundee character to support her vision of an Australian monoculture. The 86-year-old star, who shot to global fame with the 1986 film, described Hanson's stance as "so racist" and referred to her as a "pelican" in a recent interview.
Hanson's monoculture argument sparks controversy
During a speech in the Senate, Hanson called for a return to an Australian monoculture, saying: "Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston. These are the essential features of Australian monoculture and there's nothing remotely exclusionary about them." The comments drew immediate backlash, with Hogan now joining the chorus of critics.
Hogan, who worked as a labourer alongside immigrants from the 1950s and 1960s before his acting career, questioned the logic of Hanson's argument. "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," he told the Australian Financial Review.
Hogan's multicultural background
Hogan highlighted his own diverse work history to counter Hanson's claims. "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," he said. Now living in Venice Beach, California, Hogan expressed a desire to return and die in a "multicultural Australia."
Hanson defends her stance
This is not the first time Hanson has faced criticism for her anti-multicultural remarks. During her appearance at the Australian Press Club, she argued that her vision of a monocultural Australia did not require people to abandon their heritage but rather to assimilate into Australian society under the same laws and values.
Hanson elaborated on her concerns about societal fragmentation in an interview with Sunrise. "Do we really want to see Sharia law, do we want to see multiple marriages, do we want to see these gangs sitting around our streets with machetes? That's not the Australian way of life," she said. "It's about being united under the one culture, and everyone should be treated the same under one law. I'm not saying forget where you came from or your cultural background by no means."
