Senator Hanson's comments applied to her. She also recalls Senator Hanson saying words to the effect of "I'm just saying what everyone is thinking." Dr Sri felt that that normalised and legitimised the anti-Asian sentiment. Dr Sri was thereby made to feel paranoid that the majority of people, including her classmates, did not accept her or had negative thoughts about her because she "looked Chinese."
67 Dr Sri remembers that Senator Hanson's comments undermined her sense of self-confidence and caused her to internalise feelings of inadequacy and a lack of acceptance and appreciation by the wider Australian society. She recalls feeling as though she had to consistently demonstrate good behaviour and perform at a high level to maintain acceptance in society and in her school community.
68 Dr Sri recalls, in the early 2000's, seeing bumper stickers with words to the effect of "if you don't love it, leave" and "fuck off, we're full." She interpreted the bumper stickers to mean that if you are a migrant or a person of colour, then you are not allowed to offer critiques or suggestions about how to improve Australian life but instead had to be grateful.
69 Dr Sri said that as a result of her experiences of racism, she has felt scared, paranoid and intimidated, particularly when meeting new people and going into new situations with an unknown group of people, she has suffered depression and her sense of self and self-confidence has been negatively impacted. She said that she has felt unwelcome in Australia, even though she was born in Australia and it is the only place where she has ever lived. She has felt silenced and dismissed, and that she does not have the right to voice her thoughts and feelings particularly around subjects such as political issues including issues of racism, migration and refugees.
Ayan Abdirashid Ali
70 Ayan Abdirashid Ali is a student who identifies as being of Somali origin which is where her parents are from, although she was born in Italy in 2000. She is Muslim and wears a hijab. She has lived in Australia since 2001 except for a period of four years when she was in high school and lived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
71 Ms Ali saw Senator Hanson's tweet on Twitter on 9 September 2022. Ms Ali interpreted the phrase "piss off back to Pakistan" in the tweet as a variation of the phrase "go back to where you came from", which to her is a hateful, inflammatory and xenophobic phrase that she knows very well. As a person of colour from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, and an
