Over recent weeks, Pauline Hanson made headlines for her comments on domestic violence. She declared domestic violence is “a two-way street”.

Media outlets then unearthed a 2025 podcast episode in which Hanson called paid domestic and family violence leave a “holiday”, and alleged domestic violence diverts police attention away from “real crime”.

While Hanson says her comments were taken out of context, her stance on domestic violence is not new.

In fact, as I chart in a forthcoming piece in Australian Historical Studies, her identification with male grievance has been core to her politics since day one. She’s been dubbed “queen of the Australian men’s rights movement”.

Yet this aspect has been largely overlooked by journalists and scholars alike, overshadowed by her attitudes toward racial diversity and immigration.

Defender of men’s rights

In 1996, Hanson told a journalist:

I think the most downtrodden person in this country is the white Anglo-Saxon male.

I think the most downtrodden person in this country is the white Anglo-Saxon male.

In 2023, she said in parliament:

[…] but, no doubt, I will be the only woman today speaking for the most oppressed and neglected minority in Australia: men.

[…] but, no doubt, I will be the only woman today speaking for the most oppressed and neglected minority in Australia: men.

As evidenced by these two quotes, almost 30 years apart, Hanson has consistently cast herself as an unwavering champion of men’s rights.

Though the manosphere has been trending in recent years, it’s just the latest manifestation of the men’s rights movement, which took off in the 1960s.

A subset of this movement is the fathers’ rights movement. Its followers........

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