Far-right senators railing against a scholarship program for African students in Australia had not retracted their statements, after they were criticised for quoting an inccurate figure in their argument on May 2.
On April 30, Senator Lucy Gichuhi, a Kenyan-born lawyer who joined the Liberal Party in February, posted on social media about a scholarship program for international students to travel to Australia. The post read “Australia award scholarship will enable up to 10,000 African students the opportunity to study in Australia.”
Later in the day, One Nation leader Paulin Hanson said it was “disgraceful” Australia would give that much money to foreign students, The Australian reported. Former One Nation member, now independent Senator Fraser Anning threw his weight behind Hanson, saying the money should be redirected to white South African farmers.
The actual number of students that would benefit from the program is 1,000, instead of 10,000, SBS quoted official sources. The TV station said a Facebook page called “AfricanUnion” shared information about the initiative with the wrong figures.
On May 2, Gichuhi deleted the original link and apologised for being a “victim of fake new… despite the best efforts in checking the information.”
In a statement to Storyful, Hanson said: “The Government might want to call this fake news but the price tag looks very real. Senator Gichuhi has called this fake news but that’s not good enough. It might not be 10,000 African students but is it 10,000 international students? We don’t know… What we do know is DFAT has confirmed this program costs taxpayers $320 million.” Credit: Pauline Hanson via Storyful
