Pauline Hanson’s high-end summer Eurotrip draws heat

Duncan Murray and Zac de Silva | July 17, 2026

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has raised eyebrows after being spotted attending a fashion show in Italy following talks with a controversial right-wing podcaster.

Senator Hanson was snapped at a Dolce & Gabbana fashion event in Sicily this week wearing a floor-length embroidered black gown.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart also attended the event and was later sighted with Senator Hanson at a luxury Italian resort.

Senator Hanson’s European trip had already made headlines after she engaged in a nearly hour-long podcast conversation with convicted criminal Tommy Robinson.

In the episode published by the far-right activist on Friday (AEST),  Senator Hanson accused people from “Muslim areas” of ripping off the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, a long-time political opponent of Senator Hanson, was quick to point out the apparent contradiction between her recent activities and political messaging to Australians.

“It is a scam that One Nation pretends to be anti-establishment when they are being bankrolled by billionaires and the right-wing media,” Senator Faruqi told reporters.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce downplayed Senator Hanson’s resort visit with Mrs Rinehart, who in April gifted the One Nation leader a $1 million plane.

“I suppose they’re on holiday,” he told ABC Radio.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Gina picks up some of the tab for the accommodation.

“If two people are mates and they go on a holiday together, who cares, really?”

Senator Hanson travelled to the UK earlier in July where she conducted the talk with Robinson, who has a history of convictions for crimes including assault and fraud.

During the conversation, Senator Hanson reflected on her time in prison, her two stunts wearing a burqa in parliament, and her hardline immigration policy.

Senator Hanson has previously expressed her opposition to pandemic-era vaccine mandates and told Robinson the government should “get out of telling people how to run their lives”.

Rapidly developed vaccines are widely credited by public health experts with saving millions of lives during the pandemic, while about a dozen deaths in Australia have been linked to the immunisation.

Asked how Australia had ended up with “Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems with violent Africans”, Senator Hanson said it started with the end of the White Australia Policy.

The postwar flood of migrants was different to today’s situation because the new arrivals “learned to speak English”, she said.

She also claimed without evidence that “a lot” of the nearly 800,000 people on the NDIS were from “Muslim areas” but added there were many other Australians on the program too.

“A lot of them are ripping the system off … a lot from the Muslim areas and they’re getting on the scheme, but there’s a lot of Aussies too,” she said.

Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler said he was loath to respond to the podcast because Robinson was a convicted criminal who’d been disowned by leading figures on the right.

But he added he’d never seen a breakdown in nationality or religious background of NDIS participants.

“I’m not sure where Ms Hanson is getting her figures from, but they’ve never been provided to me … I suspect they don’t exist,” he told ABC Radio on Friday.

Mr Butler said Senator Hanson needed to explain why she travelled to Europe at a time when Australians were struggling with the cost of living.