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AAP
AAP
National
Miklos Bolza

Pauline Hanson hate-speech trial set to open

Senator Mehreen Faruqi will allege Senator Pauline Hanson engaged in racial discrimination. (Lukas Coch / Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson made a hateful tweet against a Greens senator because of her decades-long tendency to make similarly racist remarks, a Federal Court judge is expecting to be told.

A five-day hate-speech trial is scheduled to begin in the Federal Court on Monday when Greens federal deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi will allege Senator Hanson engaged in racial discrimination through a September 2022 tweet.

At the time, Senator Hanson wrote that Senator Faruqi should "pack (her) bags and piss off back to Pakistan".

The tweet came in response to the Greens senator's comments following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Senator Faruqi wrote she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a "racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples".

In the lawsuit, the One Nation head is accused of engaging in unlawful offensive behaviour of racial discrimination because of the tweet.

Senator Faruqi is seeking $150,000 in damages.

In response, Senator Hanson has denied the social media post was sent due to anyone's race, colour, national or ethnic origin.

In March, Justice Angus Stewart dismissed an attempt to eliminate a wide range of evidence proposed by the deputy Greens leader for the trial.

This included expert reports on racism and the phrase "go back to where you came from", as well as evidence purporting to show a decades-long tendency by Senator Hanson to make racist remarks.

"(If) she has a tendency to make public statements because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of a person or a group of people or to engage in commentary consistent with holding white supremacist views, it is more likely that she published the tweet in question because of' the asserted reason," Justice Stewart wrote previously.

Both senators are expected to get into the witness box to give evidence.

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