Pauline Hanson says she regrets calling Indigenous Australians "the most primitive race on Earth", adding it wasn't her intention to cause hurt with the widely derided remarks.
But the One Nation leader still insisted in a News24 interview on Tuesday that Indigenous Australians were "primitive" compared with the first English settlers.
Senator Hanson was pressed in the interview on whether she stood by recently resurfaced comments made on the Jamie J podcast in 2025, where she criticised the study of Indigenous history and culture in schools.
"I regret saying that because I don't want to upset people," she said.
"That's not my intentions. That wasn't my intention to hurt people. My intentions are caring to pull people together."
"I've always put my foot in my mouth when I come out and say things … I'm not the most eloquent speaker in how I deliver something."
Senator Hanson's comments in the podcast, along with recently exposed remarks criticising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's mother for spending decades in public housing and her posting of a video which labelled former special forces soldier and Liberal MP Andrew Hastie a traitor, have sparked widespread condemnation.
Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rebuked Senator Hanson, saying making Australia better was about working together rather than tearing people down on the basis of race.
"When you say 'the most primitive race on Earth,' you are speaking about a race of people," she told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday.
"I don't care what excuses are being made. She did absolutely demonstrate wilful ignorance because there's a hell of a lot more to Australia's first people than simply what her remarks suggest."
Australia's First Peoples had shaped and enriched the nation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said.
"This country prides itself on shared values of fairness, dignity and respect. The senator's comments utterly contradict these values and have no place in the national conversation," she said in a statement.
"Such commentary is a tactic to divide us at a time when we need to come together."
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said he has "great respect" for Indigenous Australians and didn't agree with the remarks.
"We're growing this party. We have to make it a viable alternative for Australia," he told ABC radio.
"Aboriginal people ... they lived in an incredibly harsh environment, and an incredibly harsh environment. You got to be pretty ingenious to survive."
Addressing the coalition partyroom, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said Senator Hanson's comments did not meet a basic test of decency.
Pointing to a rare show of unity among the upper house's four Indigenous senators, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said it "speaks volumes" as to why the One Nation leader should apologise.
"Clearly the Senate can act, but I am personally calling out to Senator Hanson saying this is important," she told ABC TV.
"What (she) said is deeply hurtful. It's completely wrong.
"Those comments were completely baseless. They harm. They dehumanise First Nations people in Australia."
The One Nation leader was banned from parliament for seven parliamentary sitting days in November after she wore a burqa in the Senate, leading to her being censured.
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