In a swift rhetorical blow, Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan has reportedly called One Nation leader Pauline Hanson a 'pelican' after she held up his iconic character as an exemplar of 'Australian monoculture'. The 86-year-old actor, tracked down by the Australian Financial Review to Venice Beach, California, did not mince words: 'She's a pelican, yeah', adding that Hanson 'sounds very much like this stupid boofhead over here, Trump'.
Hanson's Monoculture Pitch Sparks Backlash
Australian politics has spent a week recovering from Hanson's controversial concept of 'Australian monoculture', first introduced at this month's National Press Club address. In a Senate speech on Wednesday, she declared: 'Bring back Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston. These are the essential features of Australian monoculture, and there's nothing remotely exclusionary about them.' Hogan's response has now reignited the debate over what constitutes Australian identity.
What Does 'Pelican' Mean as an Insult?
Hogan's use of 'pelican' as an insult has left some scratching their heads. The actor has prior form: in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee, his character tells a New York driver: 'Get on the right side of the road, ya pelican!' Actor Russell Crowe also reportedly used the term in a now-deleted tweet after the Rabbitohs' 2014 NRL grand final win, calling a club sponsor a 'pelican' after he backed the opposing team. The executive said he had been misconstrued.
The insult dates back further. In Shakespeare's King Lear, the titular character says of Goneril and Regan: ''twas this flesh begot/Those pelican daughters', referencing the belief that young pelicans fed on their mother's blood. However, it seems unlikely Hogan was reaching for Shakespeare to criticise Hanson's political ambition.
Australians are no strangers to using native wildlife as insults, including galah, bin chicken, and drongo. While 'pelican' is absent from the Australian National Dictionary, online consensus defines it as a fool or clown, based on perceptions of the bird as slow-moving and ungainly. This is unfair to the animal, which BirdLife Australia describes as 'highly mobile', cooperative in groups, and able to 'soar to heights of up to 3,000m'. Indeed, the pelican has steadily risen in Guardian Australia's Bird of the Year poll, thanks partly to reporter Matilda Boseley's public awareness campaigns.
Hogan Rejects Monoculture, Embraces Multiculturalism
Insult or not, Hogan's comments fuel Hanson's controversy-publicity machine. But he made clear he did not intend a compliment. 'She's living in the past, obviously,' he said of Hanson. 'How can [Australia] 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 added: 'I want to die in Australia – in a multicultural Australia!'
Hogan's role in Australian vernacular is contested. The national treasure is credited by academics for giving 'G'day' international prominence, though he has yet to fully recover from urging Americans to 'throw another shrimp on the barbie'. His latest quip underscores a deep divide over national identity, with Hanson's monoculture vision facing sharp criticism from across the political spectrum.
