Covid claim a fresh headache for Hanson
More questionable views have surfaced from a One Nation senator as the Pauline Hanson-led party seeks to present itself as a credible major party alternative.
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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson faces another political headache after video surfaced of the party’s Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts claiming deaths were “staged” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It comes as One Nation popularity dipped according to a major national poll, and as a candidate in a state byelection brushed off criticism of his past cocaine use, despite the party cracking down on crime.
In a video interview published in 2025 and first reported by the Nine newspapers, Roberts questions the extent of deaths during the early days of the pandemic.
“Major news broadcasters had these videos of people dying in their droves in makeshift morgues in the streets of New York, the streets of Beijing, the streets of Italy,” Roberts told a forum hosted by podcaster Sam Hope.
“We thought it is pretty serious from what we’ve seen. We didn’t realise until fairly recently that those were all staged. They’re bulls–t.”
Malcolm Roberts is a long-term political colleague of Pauline Hanson. Photo: AAP
Roberts also questioned the severity of the illness, saying that if the most vulnerable – including the elderly and immunocompromised – were excluded, its severity must be low.
“The chief medical officer who was involved in staging a lot of the lies we were told by the bureaucracy … the chief medical officer’s graphs showed low to moderate severity,” he said.
“We were conned.”
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Roberts said he wrote to then-prime minister Scott Morrison and former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk requesting “evidence” but received no reply.
A Roy Morgan poll published on Tuesday showed One Nation’s primary vote had dipped 5.5 per cent to 22.5 per cent, while the Coalition’s is up 3 per cent to 23 per cent and Labor was unchanged on 27.5 per cent.
Hanson has been under fire since returning from the UK, where she conducted an interview with anti-immigration activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson and told a conservative conference Australia had been “flooded” with migrants. She also visited Italy with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Hanson of using the trip to engage with fringe people and to talk Australia down.
“I find it astonishing that Pauline Hanson has travelled overseas in order to denigrate and talk down Australia,” he said.
At the weekend, he said Roberts had “a history of promoting conspiracy theories”.
“This is a guy who’s been elected and re-elected, and endorsed and re-endorsed, multiple times by Pauline Hanson and One Nation,” Albanese said.
“His views are not worthy of being a senator.”
Candidate defends drugs past
Hanson has her eye on another seat in a state byelection, backing in a former cocaine user despite the party cracking down on crime.
She is backing gym owner Luke Herdegen in the Western Australian seat of Secret Harbour, an electorate south of Perth.
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A coach and fitness manager, Herdegen vows to be tough on crime, aligning with the views of WA One Nation leader Rod Caddies.
“Crime is up in the suburbs with the electorate, as is homelessness. Traffic for morning commuters is getting worse,” Caddies wrote in a social media post.
Herdegen has brushed off criticism of his past, including a 2019 social media post where he admitted to heavily using cocaine before turning his life around.
“That’s a story I put out there to try and help inspire people to live happier and healthier lives,” Herdegen said on Tuesday.
“When I’m in the streets of Secret Harbour, they’re not asking me about a blog post from 10 years ago.
“I deactivated my social media to protect my family from people like [journalists].”
When Hanson was asked about the cocaine use, she said she knew nothing of it.
“I have been out of the country and I just briefly met Luke yesterday,” she said, referring to her European trip.
Just days earlier, Caddies had backed the party’s candidate-vetting process.
“I am very satisfied,” Caddies told The West Australian.
“We used a system which checks everything – adverse media, email screening, phone screening, banned or disqualified persons’ screening, court screening.”
Hanson has vowed to put Labor and the Greens last in preferencing at the August 29 byelection.
One Nation is also using AI-generated social media posts that claim the Labor state government has neglected the seat.
At a Seven West Media event in Perth on Tuesday, Hanson said she hoped to work with the Liberals and Nationals to kick Labor out of Secret Harbour.
Labor won 46 per cent of first preferences in the seat at the 2025 election.
One Nation was fourth, just behind the Greens. At 8.4 per cent of first preferences, it got more than double the party’s statewide average.
—with AAP
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