Queensland senator Pauline Hanson will abstain from voting to censure her former One Nation party colleague Fraser Anning because she says it won't "prove a damn thing".
In a fiery face-off on morning television with fellow crossbencher Derryn Hinch, party leader Senator Hanson downplayed her past connection to Senator Anning, who now sits as an independent.
"For you to say that is absolutely disgusting," she told Seven's Sunrise when asked if she had picked Senator Anning to run for One Nation because of his white supremacist views.
"No, I didn't pick him because of that."
Senator Anning entered parliament in late 2017 as a replacement for One Nation's Malcolm Roberts, who was disqualified from the upper house due to his dual citizenship.
Senator Hanson kicked the newcomer out of the party on his first day when he refused to step aside and allow Mr Roberts to return.
After sitting as an independent in a loose alliance with other right-wing crossbenchers, Senator Anning joined Katter's Australian Party before he was booted out after a few months over racist comments.
Senator Anning has been branded a "disgrace" by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian leaders for blaming the Christchurch mosque massacre on Muslim immigration.
When parliament resumes next month the coalition government and Labor plan to jointly move a censure motion condemning his comments.
But Senator Hanson doesn't see the point of a censure motion.
"A censure isn't going to prove, it's not going to do anything ... what is a censure? It will not prove a damn thing," she said on Monday.
"The people will have their say, not politicians out there beating their chest about all of this."
But shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says abstaining from the vote amounts to supporting Senator Anning's comments.
Labor will be preferencing One Nation and Senator Anning last at the forthcoming election, he added.
"And we call on all of the mainstream parties to put Senator Anning and One Nation last at the bottom of their preferences," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Australian Associated Press
