Senator Malcolm Roberts claims One Nation wants to deport at least ۲۰۰,۰۰۰ people and has repeatedly referred to the far-right concept of “remigration” in podcast interviews and speeches to niche platforms.
In two recent podcasts, Roberts said One Nation wanted to deport ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ temporary residents as well as ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ international students – a total much higher than the party’s published policy. The senator said after those people were removed, he wanted to “start working on the higher numbers of people we need to get rid of”.
One Nation’s policy website states the party would seek to “deport ۷۵,۰۰۰ illegal migrants”, specifically noting “visa overstayers, illegal workers, and unlawful non-residents”. The website also pledges to “end the student visa loopholes that turn study into a backdoor to permanent residency or low-wage labour”.
But Roberts, in an interview with the ۲ Worlds Collide podcast in November ۲۰۲۵, suggested One Nation wanted to deport or “remigrate” a far higher number.
“We would also deport immediately anybody who’s here illegally, and that’s ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ people now … on contravention of their resident visas. That’s ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ we would deport, remigrate. Call it what you want. Get rid of them straight away,” he said.
“Then we’ve got about an estimated ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ international students who are here illegally. They’ve either graduated and not gone home or they’ve breached their legal visa. So we would send them home.”
In another interview with podcaster Brodie Buchal, published in June, Roberts repeated those sentiments.
“We have ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ people here on temporary resident visas illegally. We would deport them, remigrate them, send them home,” he said.
“We’ve got ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ students who are here illegally, and we suspect it’s much, much more. Send them home.”
“We’d tighten the entry requirements, remigrate, deport, and then start working on the higher numbers of people we need to get rid of.”
One Nation was contacted for comment and clarification of its deportation policy.
One Nation’s hardline immigration policy has come under renewed scrutiny after Pauline Hanson’s appearance on Channel Seven’s Spotlight program, where she met Rupert Lowe, leader of hard-right party Restore Britain. Lowe gave her a pamphlet titled “mass deportations” and Hanson replied they were “on the same page”.
Seven reporter Liam Bartlett asked Hanson whether she thought “this concept of mass deportation is a good one?” She replied: “I love it.”
However One Nation has consistently declined to detail how it would enact such a policy. MP Barnaby Joyce on Monday said people would be deported “as it becomes apparent that they’re not supposed to be here”, including “as people present themselves for medical issues”.
Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the immigration department, said it would be “eyewateringly expensive” for a system to deport such numbers of people from Australia, or a Trump-style mass deportation operation like the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He said recent figures showed only about ۲,۰۰۰ people were apprehended, detained and deported from Australia last year, with another ۶,۰۰۰ voluntarily leaving.
“It would cost a fortune and unless you did it carefully, it would result in massive errors and all sorts of problems,” Rizvi said.
“There is a sensible policy in this space to be developed, but you need to do it in a careful, well-targeted way that doesn’t increase in huge errors, huge numbers of people detained and clogging up court systems.”
Roberts’ recent comments have also repeatedly referenced “remigration”. The term has featured in Trump administration immigration policies, including an “office of remigration” to oversee deportations and “voluntary return of migrants” – Trump himself tweeted about his plan to return “illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration)”.
But remigration has also become a buzzword for the global far right. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism described remigration as “a white supremacist policy concept that calls for the forced removal of immigrants, refugees, and their descendants — including legal residents and citizens — based on race, ethnicity, culture, being perceived as ‘non-white,’ or a failure to ‘assimilate’.”
One Nation was contacted for comment regarding Roberts’ understanding of the term.
In addition to mentioning “remigration” on the ۲ Worlds Collide and Brodie Buchal podcasts, Roberts also advocated for it during a speech to a conference organised by conservative campaign group Firebrand. Photos from that conference, posted to social media, show Hanson was also in attendance.
The conference host, welcoming Roberts onto the stage, praised him as “one of the only MPs yet to mention the magical, unmentionable word ‘remigration’”.
In his address, Roberts said: “Remigration is the second part of my my speech. Take the people who are not fitting in or that we don’t need and send them home.
“We need to put Australia first. Stop immigration, deport people, remigrate.”
In that speech, Roberts said he was “opposed to mass immigration, the swamping of our culture” but was “not opposed to immigrants”.
Roberts’ speech was praised by a white supremacist news outlet, The Noticer. The outlet said “remigration” had been popularised by German and Austrian far-right parties and activists, who frame the term as meaning the mass removal of non-white citizens.
Dr Kurt Sengul, a research fellow at Macquarie University who studies far-right ideology, called remigration “an extreme and dangerous” position.
“It’s important to note that remigration refers to the forced repatriation of all non-white people, not just so-called illegal or undocumented migrants or reducing ‘mass migration’. It’s an extreme position rooted in ethnic cleansing and white supremacy,” he said.
Asked if he thought there was any other way to interpret the term “remigration” in this context, Sengul said no.
“I don’t think there is any other way to see it; there’s not a friendlier or more moderate version of remigration … it sends a powerful signal to far-right activists that One Nation are embracing the term,” he said.
