Individual Politician Summary
Individual Politician Summary
Pauline Lee Hanson (née Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation. She has been a senator for Queensland since 2016, and was the member of parliament (MP) for the division of Oxley from 1996 to 1998.
Born in Brisbane, Hanson worked in small businesses and as a councillor of Ipswich City Council, joining the Liberal Party in 1995. She was preselected as the Liberal candidate for the division of Oxley at the 1996 federal election, but was disendorsed shortly before the election for her controversial comments about Aboriginal Australians. Hanson remained on the ballot paper as the Liberal candidate, winning the election to sit as an independent, before co-founding One Nation in 1997. She was unsuccessful in her re-election attempt at the 1998 election.
Hanson unsuccessfully contested the 2001 election as the leader of One Nation, but was expelled from the party in 2002. A District Court jury found Hanson guilty of electoral fraud in 2003, but her convictions were later overturned by the Queensland Court of Appeal. She spent 11 weeks in jail prior to the appeal being heard. Following her release, Hanson ran in several state and federal elections, as the leader of her United Australia Party and as an independent before rejoining One Nation in 2013 and becoming leader again the following year. She was narrowly defeated at the 2015 Queensland state election, but was elected to the Senate at the 2016 election, along with three other members of the party. She was re-elected at the 2022 election.
In 2017 and 2025, Hanson gained media attention for wearing a burqa into the Australian Senate. She was suspended from the Senate for seven days for this act.
We estimate Pauline Hanson received a parliamentary salary of: $239,270
Based on the Remuneration Tribunal base salary of $239,270 plus any additional allowance for ministerial, shadow or office-holder roles held at time of generation.
