One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been accused of using an edited viral video to push misinformation about the Voice to Parliament.
Hanson has used the video to claim that a successful referendum will increase violence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
She posted an almost 50-second version of the video on her social media, writing that this is “just a taste of what is to come if Australians don’t stop Albanese’s race-based Voice and its Treaty”.
The video, which was originally posted on August 4 by former One Nation candidate Brett Johannsen, has over 1.5 million views across multiple social media platforms.
Hanson has since deleted the video from her page.
The video shows an altercation between a white woman and an Indigenous mother and daughter in Poona, Queensland.
The woman filming can be heard shouting to the white woman to get off a particular area of the beach saying Butchulla people “owned these lands to the exclusivity of all others which comes under federal native title”.
“You might not like it, but guess what? Times are changing. You don’t own the land, we do. Get off it, please,” said the woman filming.
However, an ABC Investigation found the original video, which is twice the length of the edit and was posted in 2021.
Here’s what happened in the original video
The original video was filmed and posted by Butchulla woman Samala Cronin, and features her mother, Elder Gemma Cronin.
Cronin began filming as the woman’s husband approached her and her mother.
The pair were walking along the foreshore on Butchulla Country, a section of land in which Butchulla people have exclusive Native Title rights, due to a ruling in 2019.
In the video, the man can be heard asking if he could “help them”.
The man can be heard saying “you don’t own it, you have native title” then later “I’m not going to argue with you”.
At that stage Gemma told the man she is a Board Member of the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation and is going to take photos. He then notices Samala filming and lunges at her.
“Don’t do that! Don’t take photos,” he said.
Gemma pushes him back and says “don’t f***ing touch my daughter”.
“Step back, don’t you touch my daughter, step back,” she continues as she puts her hand up at him.
“When he lunged at the camera . . . my mum just went into protection mode,” Cronin told ABC.
The man eventually walks away after telling Gemma she “can’t be spoken to” and told the pair to “go away”.
At this point, his wife arrives. This is where the edit posted by the One Nation representatives begins.
The interaction ends with the husband and wife retreating to their property.
“Laugh all you like, go google some s**t and educate yourself,” Gemma says before walking away.
ABC noted that none of the parties involved in the video are aware that it had resurfaced in regard to the Voice debate.
Misinformation expert RMIT FactLab editor Esther Chan told ABC there is no connection between the incident and the Voice to Parliament referendum and that the claim that Australians have to surrender land if the referendum succeeds has already been debunked.