Australian footballer Nestory Irankunda said One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's call to end Australia's multiculturalism policy upset him and several teammates while the Socceroos were competing at the World Cup in North America in June.
Socceroos winger Irankunda says Hanson's multiculturalism remarks upset players during World Cup
Australian footballer Nestory Irankunda said One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's call to end Australia's multiculturalism policy upset him and several teammates while the Socceroos were competing at the World Cup in North America in June.
Irankunda made the comments in an interview with presenter Hamish Macdonald on 702 ABC Sydney, days after transferring from English Championship club Watford to Portuguese side Sporting CP for an undisclosed fee reported to be in the region of $26 million.
Hanson gave a speech at the National Press Club in June in which she called for Australia to end its longstanding multiculturalism policy in favour of a monoculture. Later, in the Senate in June, Hanson said the Socceroos represented her vision of a monocultural Australia, describing them as 'people from different background and cultures and nations all wearing the green and gold and representing one nation under one flag and succeeding under the same set of rules.'
Irankunda was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania in 2006 to Burundian parents who fled the country's civil war. He came to Australia when he was three months old and is one of several Socceroos players from a refugee background.
Australia was eliminated from the tournament in the Round of 32, losing to Egypt. Socceroo Awer Mabil, upon returning in July, said his team was not distracted by the debate and called it 'all bullshit' to suggest Australia was not a multicultural society.
- The source does not state the exact date of the 702 ABC Sydney interview.
- The source does not confirm the $26 million transfer fee as an official figure; it is described only as reported and in the region of that amount.
- The source does not state whether Hanson responded to Irankunda's specific comments.
- The source does not identify which other Socceroos players Irankunda said were upset by Hanson's remarks.
- The source does not specify what prior comments by Hanson Irankunda referred to when he said he was upset by 'some of the things she said in the past.'
Read the original at ABC News Australia