A right-wing commentator has criticized high school students planning to walk out of class to protest against Pauline Hanson, arguing that their time would be better spent in school. The criticism comes as student activists prepare for rallies scheduled for August 13.
One of the main organizers, the High School Anti-Capitalists group, released a video urging Queensland students to participate. An organizer in the video stated, "Students in Queensland are going to walk out on this Thursday to fight against Pauline Hanson." The group's campaign materials accuse Hanson's One Nation party of racism and far-right politics, and suggest the party poses a growing threat to migrants, workers, and minority groups.
Right-wing commentator GoWokeGoBroke questioned the students' participation, specifically highlighting a grammatical error in the organizer's statement. "Kids who can’t form simple sentences need to stay in school and not go to Pauline Hanson protests," she stated, pointing out that "on this Thursday" is grammatically incorrect. She asserted that "The schooling system in this country and the standards that we have for literacy and numeracy are diabolical," and schools have become "places of activism, not education."
In response to the students' rhetoric, including comparisons of Hanson to a Nazi, the commentator argued that such comparisons demonstrate a lack of historical understanding. "I'm gonna place a large wager that none of those students have ever read anything about Hitler's Nazi Germany, because if they had, they wouldn't be calling Pauline Hanson a Nazi," she said. She suggested that this misapplication of historical terms reflects issues within the Australian education system.
Student activists have promoted the upcoming rallies on social media, with an organizer stating in another video, "The vast majority of people in this society are not racist. We don't support a Nazi coming into power." The commentator characterized the activists' language, which included phrases like "we need to fight her, we need to cancel her, we hate her," as hate and venom, suggesting these attitudes are influenced by educators and university systems.
The planned student walkouts are occurring as One Nation garners increasing political attention, with both supporters and critics closely observing the party's influence.