Pauline Hanson attacks ADF after spear-crafting photos

Pauline Hanson has slammed the Australian Defence Force officials as ‘out of touch’ and ‘woke’ after Australian soldiers were pictured crafting Indigenous weaponry. Army personnel participated in the ‘Exercise Greenskin’ course in Canberra in May, which aimed to connect soldiers with Indigenous history, culture and local Ngunnawal traditions. The four-day program tasked soldiers with finding appropriate trees to craft clubs, spears, axes and coolamons – a shallow vessel – before taking part in a series of cultural tours. However, the One Nation leader questioned the

program’s purpose, accusing the defence department of ‘forcing’ soldiers to craft spears rather than practice ‘modern day warfighting.’ ‘I hope spears and clubs aren’t our new plan for defence instead of weapons and drones,’ Hanson said in a social media post on Monday. ‘Defence obviously knew this was a stinker because they didn’t even post it to Facebook, trying to keep it hidden on LinkedIn instead. ‘To be clear, this isn’t the fault of the diggers. They’re being forced to do this by out of

touch Generals and our woke defence minister.’ Hanson also appeared to draw inspiration from a comment made on defence Australia’s original LinkedIn post, almost copying word-for-word a critique made by Mineline Resources Managing Director Glenn Jones. ‘It’s also good to see the “traditional” Ryobi sander getting a workout in this “traditional” process,’ Hanson quipped. Mr Jones was not alone in his criticism, with others taking to defence Australia’s post to question the role of the program. Cyber Security Architect John Harrison asked: ‘Would the four

days of training been better spent learning battlefield tactics and technologies being used in Ukraine, and closely studied by the People’s Liberation Army of China?’ Public servant Shane Shephered-Ashby, who is understood to work in Defence, also publicly slammed the course. ‘They had cordless sanders and axes back in the Dreamtime? Waste of time money and man hours,’ he commented. However, others championed the program and said it was a great way to help soldiers better understand the Aboriginal history of their unit. Officer in

charge, Major Samuel White, said soldiers and officers may eventually be authorised to carry culturally cleared Indigenous weapons for ceremonial purposes. ‘When you walk into every CO’s [commanding officer] office, there should be something like this from the area,’ Major White said. Participant Sergeant Scott Trenham, a Palawa man from Tasmania, said one standout was seeing non-Indigenous soldiers learn more. ‘I have a strong link to culture being Indigenous myself, but seeing non-Indigenous Australians and service members learn how to do this sort of stuff

is the highlight,’ he said. A spokesperson for defence Minister Richard Marles slammed Hanson’s comments. ‘All these comments from Senator Hanson demonstrate a complete lack of respect for the men and women of the Australian Defence Force who every day work tirelessly and selflessly to keep our nation safe,’ the spokesperson told the Daily Mail. ‘Our defence force personnel deserve better than being the centre of the culture war One Nation want to wage.

Pauline Hanson, Australian Defence Force, Exercise Greenskin, Indigenous weapons, Ngunnawal traditions, Richard Marles, One Nation, Glenn Jones, John Harrison, Shane Shephered-Ashby, Samuel White, Scott Trenham