One Nation's Victorian deputy leader defends AI-generated racist campaign video, says climate issue "has nothing to do with economy"

At One Nation's Victorian campaign launch in Melbourne, an AI-generated video was played that juxtaposed an African-looking youth with a machete-wielding home invader, and a seemingly Middle Eastern figure with a suicide bomber. According to ABC News, the footage provoked controversy after being shown, with the imagery using ethnic features to directly denote types of crime and acts of terrorism, translating the threat from individual conduct into visually identifiable ethnic symbols.

Colleen Harkin, the Victorian deputy leader of One Nation, refused to acknowledge the video as racist during an interview on 774 ABC Melbourne on October 12. "I don't accept that premise that it's racist," she said, before counter-questioning host Raf Epstein: "If it were a white-skinned person or a blonde woman, would you be complaining?"

When Epstein pressed her on whether the video defined threats by group rather than by individual, Harkin pivoted to general social anxieties. "I think most people look at these things, and they say, yes, there is a crime problem in the state, there is a social cohesion problem, and yes, you can see where the problems are coming from," she said.

According to ABC News, the same video had previously sparked a dispute between Pauline Hanson's daughter and the owner of a Tasmanian coffee shop — the latter took offense at the video's content, while the former was a customer at the shop. Federal One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, asked about the matter over the weekend, said he had not personally watched the video but acknowledged that Victoria's law-and-order situation was serious. "Machete crime is a very scary thing," he told ABC. "People are frightened about the law-and-order situation in Victoria, and it needs to be addressed."

On electoral strategy, Harkin made clear that One Nation's Victorian branch was not seeking a coalition with the Liberal Party, but would direct voters to preference the Liberals above Labor. "Labor is our political enemy, the Liberals are our political competitor," she said. "We will work with anyone to put Labor last — anyone." She herself had previously been a long-standing Liberal Party member before switching to One Nation to run for the upper house, and currently also serves as education affairs director at the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

On the climate issue, Harkin echoed Hanson's stance from June this year, when Hanson characterised global warming as a "scam." "I think the climate has always been changing," she said. "For Australia, the key issue is our energy security and the associated costs." When Epstein pointed out that climate science had shown human activity to be the cause of the problem, she replied: "I don't think it has anything to do with our economy. What we do is dig up minerals, ship them overseas, and buy them back. If the world is serious about climate, the problem isn't Australia." ABC News added in the same report that "there is strong evidence linking rising temperatures to disaster-related economic losses, such as mounting insurance and cleanup bills from natural disasters."

On ethnic politics, Harkin repeated Hanson's previous remarks, saying she "had no time for radical Islam" and demanding that the Muslim community be "louder" in opposing radicalisation. "Radical Islam is a problem for Australia, and I don't think many people would disagree with that," she said. "I encounter Muslim people, but as for how those kids are being approached and who is radicalising them, I don't know." The framing placed the full burden of counter-radicalisation responsibility on the Muslim community itself, sidestepping the role of One Nation's own exclusionary rhetoric in shaping minorities'处境.