Pauline Hanson has acknowledged that One Nation's health policies contained multiple factual errors, just days after the party released them. The admission came during a radio interview on Wednesday, where the party leader was confronted with inaccuracies in the documents.
Errors in Indigenous Health and Hospital Data
The policies, published on One Nation's website, included claims that Indigenous health spending had been cut by 30% under the current government. However, official figures show that spending has actually increased by 12% over the same period. Additionally, the policy incorrectly stated that average hospital waiting times had risen to 18 months, while the actual figure is 4.5 months.
Hanson said the errors were due to a miscommunication between her staff and the party's policy advisors. She insisted that the core principles of the policies remained sound, despite the factual mistakes.
Opposition Reaction
Labor health spokesperson Mark Butler criticized the errors, calling them sloppy and irresponsible. He said it showed that One Nation was not fit to handle the complexities of government. The Greens also weighed in, with health spokesperson Jordon Steele-John describing the mistakes as dangerous misinformation that could undermine public trust.
One Nation has since updated its website with corrected figures, but the original documents remain available in cached versions.
