For too long, racism has been able to fester in Australia’s public discourse. It is a stubborn stain on our country, where the people calling out racism have usually faced more repercussions than the people spreading fear, hatred and division.

Seldom have the perpetrators of racism been held accountable.

Friday’s ruling by the federal court that Senator Pauline Hanson racially vilified Senator Mehreen Faruqi when Senator Hanson told Senator Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan” on X is welcome and long overdue, especially for many people in the Australian Muslim community and other marginalised groups who have been racially vilified by Senator Hanson.

Senator Hanson has a long history of hateful and discriminatory speech, including inflammatory attempts in parliament to ban the burqa, wind back protection for transgender children and stoke anti-Asian hate.

Rather than being punished for these comments, Senator Hanson has been elected into local, state and federal parliaments. So it is not a surprise that it has taken decades for an Australian court to rule that what Senator Hanson has been saying is discriminatory.

Australia’s anti-discrimination laws provide a........

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