A small Tasmanian café has pushed back against One Nation's offensive, racist AI slop and Lee Hanson is 'genuinely hurt' by this peaceful, effective protest against her party, writes Belinda Jones.
A TEMPEST IN A TEACUP erupted this week in Tasmania when Lee Hanson’s local café gave the Tasmanian One Nation Leader a dose of her own medicine.
Lee Hanson, daughter of Pauline Hanson, said she was 'genuinely hurt' when her local café, the Richmond Reading Room, posted an online message saying it would donate any money from One Nation customers directly to the Tasmanian Greens.
Lee Hanson claims to be a long-time customer of the local business and was shocked by the café manager’s stance.
It’s surprising that Lee Hanson even has time to stop for coffee, given the fact that she works two full-time jobs. The first is as a taxpayer-funded senior advisor to NSW One Nation Senator Sean Bell, working remotely from Tasmania; and she also claims to have a second full-time position as Tasmanian Lead for One Nation.
The furore was prompted by One Nation’s latest AI-generated attack ad featuring racist stereotypes, including a machete-wielding character with dark skin and another racially profiled character wearing what appears to be a suicide-bomber vest.
Richmond Reading Room’s owner, Dana Stevens, posted on social media in response to the ad:
‘Seen the latest one nation ad and felt absolutely disgusted like I do? Then you'll likely feel the same way when you see the orange ute outside our coffee shop.’
Stevens added:
‘Unfortunately our coffee is so good that even one nation members spend their money here — owned and run by a gay, Indigenous-descended, trans-inclusive, pro-multicultural, anti-flag, pro-choice, anti-generative AI, Greens voter. Any money spent by a member of one nation will be donated directly to Tasmanian Greens’.
Lee Hanson implied in her online retort that this is not the first time she’s experienced this:
‘I do not normally respond to things like this, but this one genuinely hurt.’
In a later post, Lee Hanson went on to criticise some of the people who had commented on her original post:
Politics can be robust. People can disagree with me, challenge my views and criticise my politics, that comes with putting yourself forward for public office.
But telling someone to… “fuck off back to where you came from” and sending streams of personal abuse is not political debate. It is just vile behaviour.
It appears the hypocrisy apple doesn’t fall far from the Hanson family tree.
It might be pertinent here to remind Lee Hanson that her mother, Pauline Hanson, was found guilty in the Federal Court over a social media post telling Senator Mehreen Faruqi to ‘piss off back to Pakistan’.
Lee Hanson must be oblivious to the barrage of personal attacks contained in One Nation's cartoon series and racist AI slop videos. She must be oblivious to the personal attacks on One Nation's political opponents, like Pauline Hanson's satirical cartoon describing the veteran SASR MP Andrew Hastie as a "traitor" multiple times or Pauline Hanson's personal attack on Anthony Albanese's deceased mother.
Does Lee Hanson consider her own mother's behaviour to be vile?
What possibly irritates Lee Hanson the most is that the café owner gave her a dose of her own medicine — her honest opinion.
The café has not banned Lee Hanson, like One Nation has banned the ABC and The Guardian from One Nation press conferences. Lee Hanson can still go into the Richmond Reading Room café and buy her coffee if she wishes.
It is incredibly naïve of Lee Hanson to expect that the café owner would tolerate One Nation’s offensive, racist, AI slop views given the obvious signage on the business shopfront supporting many causes One Nation actively fights against. It suggests she is unable to read the room, a necessary skill for any aspiring politician.
It’s also incredibly naïve of Lee Hanson to expect Australians to tolerate a continuous supply of racist AI slop full of personal attacks coming out of One Nation’s HQ.
Lee Hanson is not being inconspicuous by driving a big orange One Nation vinyl-wrapped vehicle — she drives that vehicle intentionally to stand out.
Her vehicle is, incidentally, just one of a growing fleet of One Nation orange cars.
Another One Nation vehicle, given to Pauline Hanson by Gina Rinehart's CEO of Hancock Agriculture, Adam Giles, was damaged last month when it was allegedly kicked in the Queensland town of Laidley.
Pauline Hanson posted to social media approximately 20 minutes after the alleged attack, including a photo of the alleged car kicker:
Police are having a discussion with this guy after he kicked in the side of the party car here in Laidley just prior to 12:30.
This behaviour is not on.
Take your frustration out at the ballot box. We’re not your punching bag.
I wouldn’t tolerate this behaviour towards any party.
The underlying problem here for One Nation candidates is that when the Party’s so-called popularity is generated by billionaire-backed propaganda and hired social media bots from overseas, then it’s not a reflection of the real world in Australia.
One Nation candidates believing their own press, driving bright orange cars and thinking they’re welcome wherever they go with their racist dog-whistling AI slop will be the impetus for candidates like Lee Hanson getting hurt feelings from hearing what real Australians think of them.
And it’s a very effective antidote to the rise of One Nation’s racist, Far-Right sentiments. If the media has a go at One Nation, Pauline Hanson simply claims “media bias”, and her followers accept it.
If other politicians have a go at One Nation, Pauline Hanson simply claims they are “ganging up” on her to garner sympathy from her followers.
Pauline Hanson can DARVO out of any predicament she finds herself in. She has an answer for everything but not this. Dana Stevens has outplayed Lee and Pauline Hanson.
Pauline Hanson can’t claim the café discriminated against or disrespected her daughter; she can’t claim to have been banned; she can make no legitimate claim against the café owner. The café owner can run her business how she pleases. She can donate money from One Nation customers to the Greens if she so chooses.
And that’s what makes café owner Dana Stevens’ actions so simple, so effective and so easy to replicate. This can be done in any café in Australia with a big orange One Nation ute parked out the front.
Suffice to say, the Tasmanian Greens are very happy to receive any donations that may come via the Richmond Reading Room from One Nation supporters. That would likely be replicated in other states too.
With mainstream media continuing to fail to hold One Nation to the same standards as Australia's other political parties, combined with a well-oiled One Nation propaganda machine churning out offensive satirical cartoons and AI slop constantly, it has become incumbent on Australians themselves to thwart the rising tide of One Nation’s Far-Right populism.
Lee Hanson should expect more interesting and effective campaigns to counteract her Far-Right populist rhetoric and racist AI slop, and the Tasmania Greens should expect lots more donations coming their way through this safe, peaceful, effective form of anti-Far-Right activism.
Belinda Jones is an IA assistant editor, a former teacher and federal political candidate. You can follow Belinda Jones on Twitter/X @belindajones68.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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