by Senator Faruqi to document the effect that Senator Hanson's tweet had on them. Each deponent states their demographic characteristics by which they identify including, by way of example, "person of colour", "person of migrant heritage", "Muslim", "culturally Jewish", and so on, and cites their experiences of discrimination on the basis of one or more of those characteristics. Their evidence is potentially relevant to the para (a) inquiry, ie the likelihood of Senator Hanson's tweet causing one of the identified results. See Faruqi v Hanson (evidence rulings) [2024] FCA 225 at [39]–[49].
61 None of the autobiographical witnesses was required for cross-examination. I accept their evidence.
Anna Ellen Sri
62 Anna Ellen Sri was born in Australia in 1989 and is an Australian citizen. She identifies as a person of colour because her father is Tamil. She also identifies as a person of migrant heritage because her father is an immigrant from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. Dr Sri is a veterinarian.
63 Dr Sri saw and read Senator Hanson's tweet on or about the day it was published, her attention possibly having first been drawn to it through media coverage about it. Dr Sri said that she understood the tweet to be telling Senator Faruqi to go back to where she was born, ie Pakistan. She felt that the use of the language "piss off" rather than merely "go" conveyed a higher degree of intolerance.
64 Dr Sri said that she also understood the tweet to convey the message that Senator Faruqi is not welcome in Australia and is not permitted to contribute to public discourse about matters which impact Australia because she was born in Pakistan. That is, Senator Faruqi and other people of colour, such as Dr Sri, should know their place in Australia, which is to be grateful and not provide any critique or even basic suggestions for improvement to Australia.
65 Dr Sri said that she felt humiliated and intimidated by the tweet. She felt humiliated because it reminded her of experiences that she had during her childhood growing up in Australia as a person of colour. She was intimidated because both Senator Hanson and Senator Faruqi are public officials–if someone like Senator Faruqi can be victimised by that kind of racism, then other immigrants and people of colour in Australia are even more vulnerable.
66 Dr Sri gave some examples of her personal experiences of racism. She said that she clearly remembers as a child seeing coverage of Senator Hanson saying that Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians". Because she had been told that she "looked Chinese", she felt that
