UK Edition
Australian anti-immigrant firebrand MP Pauline Hanson invited to Donald Trump's inauguration, but PM Malcolm Turnbull misses out
Donald Trump’s inauguration team invited MPs from Australia’s anti-migrant party One Nation to his swearing-in as United States President but did not extend an invitation to the nation’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Describing the inauguration invitation as a “gift”, Pauline Hanson, the Australian right-wing firebrand who founded One Nation and has staunchly supported Mr Trump, said she was unable to attend because of “work commitments”.
Instead, her fellow One Nation MP Brian Burston will attend.
“Would you believe it? I have been gifted tickets to the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony of @realDonaldTrump - What an honour!” Ms Hanson said in a tweet.
Ms Hanson later posted a video online of her drinking champagne outside Parliament House in Canberra alongside her fellow One Nation MPs after Mr Trump won the election in November.
"I can see in Donald Trump a lot of me and what I stand for in Australia,” she claimed at the time. “I think it's great."
Ms Hanson, a straight-talking former fish and chip shop owner, first entered parliament in 1996 and caused a storm over her attacks on Asian immigration.
She lost her seat at the 1998 election and was later jailed for electoral fraud – the charges were eventually quashed – before making a comeback at last year’s poll after shifting her focus to attacking Muslim immigration.
The party won four seats in the upper house last year and opinion polls indicate its support has been increasing.
Confirming that she had declined Mr Trump’s inauguration invitation, Ms Hanson told news.com.au: “I thought about it for a minute, it would be a fantastic opportunity, but I’ve got too much happening in Australia.”
Mr Turnbull was not invited to attend the inauguration. Heads of state are typically not invited to attend and are instead represented by chiefs of diplomatic missions in Washington.
One Nation reportedly received two tickets via a former adviser to the Trump campaign who now works for Malcolm Roberts, a One Nation MP who believes climate change is a “scam” being used by the United Nations to push for global government.
Mr Roberts travelled to the US in December and spent a week meeting with Mr Trump’s advisers and backers.