Seven Producer Pitched Anti-Immigration Special to Pauline Hanson, Sparking Controversy

A Seven producer urged Pauline Hanson to travel to Britain to meet Nigel Farage and film a Spotlight special highlighting so-called “uncontrolled immigration”, according to a pitch posted to social media by the One Nation leader.

The pitch also suggested that Seven might cover some of the travel costs for the One Nation leader and her team and that the program wanted the Reform UK leader to “invite Ms Hanson to Britain”.

The current affairs program strongly endorsed an anti-immigration position, and said they had the facts to prove what was “the backbone of our story”. The email used the phrase “uncontrolled immigration” seven times.

The senior producer Luke Mortimer said the program would “illustrate the strain uncontrolled immigration is placing on our infrastructure” and demonstrate what Australia is allegedly facing “if we don’t take back control of who comes to our country”.

“Voters in Britain are seeing pictures of boatloads of migrants, often young men from the Middle East and Africa, crossing the British Channel, and they’re seeing their seaside towns turned into camps for people who claim refugee status,” Mortimer said, in a pitch Hanson shared on her Facebook page on Monday.

It is the latest flashpoint between Hanson and Spotlight, after the special aired on Sunday, and another instance of One Nation seeking to clarify or explain parts of her recent European trip.

Hanson’s Facebook post came after a Sky News interview on Monday where One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce alleged Seven had pushed for Hanson to appear on Tommy Robinson’s podcast, repeating a claim made by Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby last week. “I get the inference that it was a suggestion by Spotlight more than a suggestion by Pauline,” Joyce claimed.

A spokesperson for Seven told Guardian Australia last week that it had been granted rare access to Hanson abroad, and had paid for some production costs, but did not confirm the organisation of the meeting.

Despite the sympathetic approach of the producer, Hanson was grilled by reporter Liam Bartlett about why she met Robinson, a man who has violent criminal convictions and is considered too extreme for Nigel Farage’s rightwing Reform UK party.

In the post, Hanson asks her followers “if last night’s show reflects their pitch?”

Bartlett told viewers Hanson was supposed to meet Farage but the meeting was overtaken by events when he resigned from the UK parliament and called a byelection in the face of financial scrutiny.

Seven has confirmed it was a Spotlight pitch but distanced itself from the leaked email by saying it was one of hundreds of communications between Seven and Hanson’s team in the run-up to the show.

In the email, Mortimer appears to imply the program would fund Hanson’s travel to the UK. “We can discuss travel arrangements,” Mortimer said.

Seven has denied paying for Hanson’s travel.

“There have been extensive, if not hundreds of emails, phone calls and messages over more than six months to organise this Spotlight special, with many developments in the news cycle leading to what was broadcast last night,” a spokesperson for Seven said on Monday.

“Spotlight is proud to have produced a balanced piece of journalism which fairly quizzed Senator Hanson but also allowed her views to be explored and heard in a high-rating special and we thank Senator Hanson for her candid access.”

The email from Mortimer repeats the talking points of One Nation and anti-immigration activists and claims many Australians are unhappy with the levels of immigration.

“Many Australians would be shocked to know our figures are already further down the line – 38.1% of Greater Sydney was born overseas,” he said. “Council areas such as Strathfield have a population of almost 60% that was born overseas.”

The program proposed taking Farage and Hanson to the UK seaside town of Bournemouth, which it claimed “has seen a surge of more than 50% of foreign-born residents, thousands of which are being housed in hotels at the taxpayers expense”.

Instead, the program filmed Hanson and Robinson walking through Luton, 50km north of London, which has a significant Muslim population.

“I hate seeing the burqa,” Hanson said on camera.

“These women covered up, I can’t stand it … I don’t want this happening in Australia.”

Bartlett also asked Hanson about her view on the “concept of mass deportation”.

“Oh, I love it,” she said, but clarified she was targeting “the ones who are here illegally in the country”.

Asked for his position on Hanson’s comments about Muslims on Monday night, Joyce first acknowledged Robinson had done “some things” that were “basically against the law” but said Hanson was not “condoning of every action of Tommy Robinson. I don’t think that was ever said.”