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Pauline Hanson Says There Is 'No Definition To An Aboriginal'

'If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal.'
'If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal.'
Stringer . / Reuters
'If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal.'

One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson believes there is no definition to determine whether a person is an Aborigine, claiming people who marry Indigenous Australians can then be classified as an Aborigine.

In her argument to repeal Section 18C of the racial discrimination act, Hanson told Andrew Bolt on Sky News that Australians have become overly sensitive to freedom of speech and need to "toughen up a bit".

The One Nation leader then went on to question what defines an Aboriginal person.

"I've raised issues about equality over the years, whether you're Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal and I'll be asking the question 'what defines an Aboriginal?'

"You know there's no definition to an Aboriginal? If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal, or if the community or the elders accept you into that community, you can be defined as an Aboriginal," Hanson told Bolt.

"I think the whole lot needs to be opened up, a big debate on this and to say that you're humiliated or intimidated, where does it stop?"

Hanson and many Coalition senators have been pushing to have the words "offend" and "insult" removed from Section 18C of the racial discrimination act.

Section 18C of the racial discrimination act makes it illegal to commit an act that is reasonably likely to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" someone because of their race or ethnicity.

As for the definition of Aboriginality, well, the internet isn't quite sold on Hanson's argument.

Australian laws were changed in the 1980s to reform legislation around the definition of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, creating a three-part definition which states: "An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he [or she] lives."

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