Hanson under fire for attack on PM's late mother

0:00Well, Labour has accused Pauline Hanson of crossing a line after she called the PM quote pathetic for referencing his childhood living in a housing commission property with his late mother. I've actually grew up in a housing commission house. You have no idea how hard it is to grow up in a housing commission house. Oh my God. I talk about Prime Minister. House commission houses should not be there for people who live in them for 30, 40. And he said his mother lived in the same one sheet. She was born in for 65 years. Sorry, that's not on to me. It should be limited time. You've been given a hand up, moving on to the next one's coming through. Well, for more on this, let's bring in seven years political editor Mark Riley. Good morning to you, Riles. Now, the energy minister Chris Bowen says that quote attacking a woman who's been dead for more than 20 years for living in public housing while it's off limits. I mean, have we seen the new line here has the new standard been set?

1:01Well, if it has, it's a pretty ordinary standard. It is that this is pretty crook when you're attacking a dead woman. And I mean, the basis of Pauline Hanson's attack here is invalid anyway. I mean, the Prime Minister's log cabin story, sure, if you want to have a crack at that, do that. My mother, Mary Ann, was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and couldn't work. And that's why she was in public housing for the time that she was with her only son. And I mean, Pauline Hanson's point made very inelegantly was that this is supposed to give people a leg up into renting their own home or buying their own home. But I mean, the Prime Minister's mother needed a hand up to actually walk. So there are people half a million people who live in public housing in Australia who can't get into the rental market and can't buy their own home. It is our social obligation in Australia as a well-formed, welfare state, a democratic state to look after these people.

2:02But all that aside, what it says about Pauline Hanson, she makes outrageous accusations. She never apologises. She never backs down. And then she plays the victim, which is what she's doing here and says it's unfair for the people to criticise her for what she said. She plays well to her ultra right wing base who, you know, are fueled by a deep dislike for the Prime Minister and don't see anything as being off bounds. But those seeing her as a conservative alternative in the current kind of flutching in politics, I think will be turned off by this particular, as people are living in public housing. But this is what you get when you're back, Pauline Hanson. And it's another clean up job for Barnaby Joyce who's becoming the Winston Wolf of One Nation. I'm sure we'll hear him apologise, but we won't hear Pauline Hanson. Well, previously, I would say parents, particularly dead parents, children were off limits. This seems as if it is a whole new standard. If that is one that we accept as a public right, let's move on now. And the government and coalition have been negotiating migration changes this week. The PM needs Angus Taylor's support.

3:03And we've seen them getting together this week twice. In fact, I think trying to hash out a deal on migration reform. How do you see this playing out? And did you see this coming? Yeah, well, it was hitting this way, Moan. And you know, it's a mess on a very important policy area that's now layered in a very combative politics. So there's no easy way through for any government on this. And certainly not even the Albanese government with a massive majority in the House of Representatives. And the problem is the Senate here. So the government's got certain targets. It wants to achieve lowering the net migration figure to 225,000 from around 300,000. The moment, you know, better targeted work visas, tougher restrictions on international students commuting over to citizenship and cutting access and fast tracking asylum claims. So it's dealing with the coalition gets summer through the Senate because the Greens won't cop a lot of that. But I think what we'll end up seeing here is a couple of things. I'll break this legislation into two.

4:04One set that might be acceptable to the coalition in the Senate needs their votes. And another that might, such a track support from the Greens, to get their votes on things. None of it will be done easily and none of it will be, will be neat because Angus Toil is going to want to fight to take back some ground from one nation and to corner Labour. So, you know, this will be really interesting to watch over the next week and it will call on all the diplomatic and negotiating skills of the government to get through this. We won't see. I don't think a big bang announcement now by Tony Burke. Remember he cancelled that press club address. I don't think we're going to have a big bang announcement on this because they'll blow up in the government's face. Now, it doesn't sound like it. Well, we know that Alvin Ezi has got a big beating this week with Trump. So, let's see how that plays out. All right. Thanks very much, Riles. Thanks, thank you, Ma'am. Great to see you. Have a good time.