One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has been blasted for calling domestic violence a “two-way street” and suggesting victims could simply leave places where they were unsafe.

In the latest spotfire confronting the populist party, Senator Hanson was asked about men who abused their partners during a radio interview in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“Domestic violence is a scourge but look, I’ve been through it myself in my life. And I just feel if you’re not in a house where you feel safe, then you shouldn’t put up with it. If these women are getting abused by men out there, then don’t put up with it,” she responded.

Prominent activist Brittany Higgins condemned the comments.

“Normalising this victim blaming rhetoric in relation to domestic violence when 38 Australian women have already been lost to femicide (this year) is atrocious,” she wrote on social media.

Ms Higgins is married to GetUp campaign lead David Sharaz, who was involved in the unfurling of a banner mocking Senator Hanson when she spoke at the National Press Club in June.

It wasn’t the only controversy confronting the populist party on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the party’s MPs distanced themselves from the views of veteran Senator Malcolm Roberts after a video surfaced of him claiming COVID-19 deaths were “staged”.

The One Nation senator has previously been accused of promoting conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic tropes.

In a video interview published in 2025, Senator Roberts questioned the extent of deaths during the early days of the pandemic.

“Major news broadcasters had these videos of people dying in their droves in makeshift morgues in the streets of New York, the streets of Beijing, the streets of Italy,” he told a forum hosted by podcaster Sam Hope.

“We thought it is pretty serious from what we’ve seen. We didn’t realise until fairly recently that those were all staged. They’re bullshit.”

In the interview, Senator Roberts also questioned the severity of COVID, saying people were “conned” about its impact.

“The chief medical officer who was involved in staging a lot of the lies we were told by the bureaucracy ... the chief medical officer’s graphs showed low to moderate severity,” he said.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce on Wednesday said he did not agree with Senator Roberts but didn’t want to throw him under a bus.

“Malcolm’s a great guy, he’s so smart, but on that issue I don’t concur with his view,” he told Sky News.

Mr Joyce himself has apologised for his bizarre outburst during an interview with ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night, during which he yelled at his dog to sit down midway through a sentence.

“You couldn’t hear it, but I could. And it was under my skin,” he said.

One Nation has faced increasing scrutiny as it rises in the polls, soaring above both the coalition and Labor in some surveys.

But a Roy Morgan poll published on Tuesday showed the anti-immigration party’s primary vote dipped more than five percentage points to 22.5 per cent in the space of a week.

Senator Hanson has come under fire since returning from her European trip, during which she was seen holidaying in Italy with billionaire donor Gina Rinehart.

She also met with anti-immigration activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson in the UK and told a conservative conference Australia had been “flooded” with migrants.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused the One Nation leader of using the trip to engage with fringe people and to talk Australia down.

Speaking to reporters at the weekend, he said Senator Roberts had a history of promoting conspiracy theories.

“His views are not worthy of being a senator,” Mr Albanese said.

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