of the tweet. He felt that those views must also be held by a broader section of Australian society, as represented by Senator Hanson.
112 Mr Mandivengerei said that he felt intimidated by the tweet because it caused him to realise that the racism and discrimination that he previously experienced can happen at all levels within Australia and can happen to people who hold high positions. He felt silenced by the tweet, and that Senator Hanson had normalised the views expressed in the tweet.
113 Mr Mandivengerei gave evidence of his experiences of racism, particularly in the workplace. They included his work colleagues giving him a nickname based on a character from a 1975 movie who was black and had abnormally large genitals. His complaint about his colleagues using that nickname for him was dismissed by his manager on the basis that "giving a nickname to a person is part of Australian culture and is a sign of mateship." Racist incidents suffered by him have caused him to feel scared and intimidated, including at times feeling physically unsafe and fearful that he would be subjected to racial violence. He has felt hopeless and powerless because when he has tried to raise complaints they were not taken seriously and nothing was done.
Swikriti Kattel
114 Swikriti Kattel was born in Nepal in 1997 and identifies as a person of colour. She immigrated to Australia in 2015 and currently works as a management consultant.
115 Ms Kattel saw Senator Hanson's tweet on the day that it was published on Twitter. She understood the words "piss off back to Pakistan" as a variation of the "go back to where you came from" rhetoric. She was reminded by the tweet that such harmful rhetoric is still prevalent in Australia. She interpreted the choice of words as being more hateful and more disrespectful than saying "go back to where you came from" because of the harshness of the language in the phrase "piss off."
116 Ms Kattel said that she felt offended by the tweet, in particular because someone in the position of a Senator had expressed such views publicly and garnered support from other Australians without appearing to be concerned about the consequences. She felt that the tweet expressed the view that Senator Faruqi was unable to express her opinion about controversial issues because of her ethnicity despite the contributions that she has made to Australia and the fact that she is an elected official.
