45 Senator Faruqi said that she found Senator Hanson's tweet to challenge her sense of belonging and her sense of self; it had a triggering effect. She found it to be insulting and humiliating. She said that it made her feel like she was not accepted and that she did not belong in Australia. It caused her to cry. She was scared of the response that Senator Hanson's tweet would encourage in others–that it would "encourage others to join the chorus of hate." Senator Faruqi said that, over a long period of time, she has suffered sleepless nights and on occasion woken up in great distress because of the trauma induced by the tweet (T82:1-6).
46 The responses on Twitter to Senator Faruqi's tweet in the period between it being published and Senator Hanson's tweet being published were tendered. Many of the tweets are personally abusive, including in racist and Islamophobic ways, although some are supportive of her and the views expressed in her tweet. Only a few express the sentiment "go back to where you come from", or variations of it. The overwhelming majority are disapproving, in one way or another.
47 Following the publishing of Senator Hanson's tweet at 4.05pm on 9 September 2022, Senator Faruqi was the target of intense abuse across her social media accounts as well as by phone calls to her parliamentary office and emails to her parliamentary email address. It is a common theme of a substantial proportion of the abusive messages that Senator Faruqi should "piss off back to Pakistan" or "piss off back to where she came from." Another common theme of a substantial proportion of the abusive messages is that Senator Faruqi is in some way less entitled, or not entitled at all, to make critical comments about Australian colonial history because she is not "from" Australia. Yet another theme is that Senator Faruqi is in some way hypocritical for having "taken" the benefits of Australia and now has the audacity to make criticisms, without any acknowledgement in those messages of Senator Faruqi's contribution to Australia over 31 years including some 10 years of public service.
48 Senator Faruqi said that the impact of Senator Hanson's tweet made her think like never before of the consequences and impacts of "telling it like it is" for someone like her in Australian politics. It had a silencing effect on her. She said that she found that after the tweet she moderated herself when speaking about colonialism or racism because those topics generate such hate. She said that she finds that she is constantly monitoring and being selective about what she feels she can or should respond to out of fear of the backlash. Senator Hanson's tweet, and the responses that it generated, have made Senator Faruqi feel "small, 'othered' and isolated."
