Pauline Hanson’s 9yo Nemesis Nailed It On ‘The Project’, Should Probably Be Given Hanson’s Job
That's Harper: 2, Pauline: 0.
Yesterday, Pauline Hanson picked a fight with a nine-year-old girl. And yes, normally this is the place where I’d make a joke about them being a good intellectual match. The only problem is, after hearing the kid speak, I’m not convinced Hanson even has a chance.
Harper Nielsen is a year four student from Queensland who made headlines on Wednesday after she was given detention for refusing to stand for the national anthem on the grounds that it disrespects Indigenous Australians. Naturally, this got Pauline in a right old tizzy, with the One National leader posting a borderline incomprehensible Facebook video in which she said Nielsen needed “a kick up the backside”.
On Wednesday evening, Nielsen appeared on The Project with her dad Mark to talk about her decision.
“I feel we should respect Indigenous people and their culture,” Nielsen told Waleed Aly. “[The anthem] says Advance Australia Fair, which when it was originally written meant advance white Australia. It says we are young, but we’re not young if we count the Indigenous Australians, who were here for over 50,000 before the British colonised Australia.”
Harper: (on the national anthem) "I feel we should respect the Indigenous people and their culture… we should include them." #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/joWhxaS7nB
— The Project (@theprojecttv) September 12, 2018
Asked how she felt about the option given to her by the school to leave the room when the anthem was played, Harper said “I don’t think I should be made to leave the room or do something different because I have different beliefs.”
“This all came out of a series of conversations we had as a family,” explained her dad. “Harper started questioning what was in the anthem, and we started talking with her about it. That’s kind of really all there was to it, and she took it from there.”
Mark added that he was “really proud of her for wanting to follow through on her beliefs”.
You can watch Harper Nielsen on The Project here, starting at the 27 minute mark.