'Not my views': Hanson rejects former candidate's homophobic comments

Pauline Hanson distances herself from former One Nation candidate's homophobic views In short: Pauline Hanson has distanced herself from homophobic comments made by a former WA One Nation candidate, who described gay people as having a "mental illness". She said Parminder Singh was no longer a candidate for the party and said she did not share his views. An openly gay WA Labor minister has denounced his comments as extreme, divisive and nasty. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has distanced herself from a failed Western Australian One Nation candidate's homophobic statements, saying they are not her views. Parminder Singh, who ran for an upper house seat in WA's state election last year, made several homophobic statements in a video clip posted by Perth comedian and content creator Jasky Singh, better known as "Mr Sikkant". Asked if he thought people were born gay, he said no. "No, no, it's a mental illness," he said. "No-one born anything … I blame on the parents because parents are too busy." Speaking to reporters at the doors of Parliament House in Canberra, Ms Hanson said Mr Singh was no longer a candidate for the party. "I know he's made comments ... he's not a candidate. He's an individual that has his own views," she said. "He's not standing for One Nation ... they're not my views." Parminder Singh was number three on One Nation WA's Legislative Council ticket at the 2025 state election but was not elected. He is not running in the upcoming Secret Harbour by-election but has posted content on social media campaigning for One Nation candidate Luke Herdegen. Labor upper house member Dr Katrina Stratton denounced Mr Singh's views as dangerous, deeply offensive and outdated. She told the Legislative Council homosexuality had not been classified a mental illness for 53 years, showing how out of step his views were. "Not only outdated, but deeply offensive and deeply harmful, including to the young people Mr Singh claims to be so concerned about," she said. Dr Stratton urged other MPs to use what she called the megaphone of state parliament to denounce his deeply offensive views. "I hope that others, including leaders in this place, step up to that megaphone to denounce these dangerous views, to say there is no place for them in modern Australia, in modern Western Australia," she said. 'One of the gayest parties in Australia' Mr Singh's profile remained on the One Nation website yesterday morning, but after the ABC made enquiries with One Nation about the video, the page appeared to have been removed. One Nation federal MP Barnaby Joyce did not officially disendorse Mr Singh, but said removing him from the website was a "strong statement". "That is not a good sign, is it? To be pulled off the website," he told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing. "I don't have the power to disendorse people. "I don't concur with his views and to be quite frank, he obviously hasn't been around farms." When asked if he was referring to gay animals, he responded: "Yeah." "I think we're one of the gayest parties in Australia," he added. 'Prejudice dressed up as politics' WA Labor minister John Carey posted to Facebook in response to news of Mr Singh's comments. "This is extreme, divisive and nasty — and it has no place in our public debate," Mr Carey wrote. Mr Carey is one of a handful of openly gay politicians in the WA Parliament and wrote that he respected "every individual's right to live their life with dignity and to be themselves without being demeaned or insulted". "We should be building a community where everyone feels safe, valued and respected — not dragging us backwards with prejudice dressed up as politics," he added. [Image text:] bVIME NUTANENN