I attended a heated press conference ahead of the Nepean by-election where Pauline Hanson and candidate Darren Hercus faced a barrage of questions.

The event quickly descended into confrontation when a man shouted, “Pauline, why don't you go back to where you came from?” prompting pushback with Hanson immediately hitting back and correcting the record on other baseless accusations.

Once the media questioning started, mainstream media journalists tried to press Hercus on vaccination policy. He responded, “I think vaccination is important, particularly for diseases like polio and stuff like that,” while maintaining that individuals should have a choice.

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Hanson clarified the party’s broader stance, stating, “we're totally opposed to having (forced) COVID vaccinations … it's up to a person's individual choice if they want to have vaccinations.”

They were clearly trying to conflate the definition of vaccination as some kind of “gotcha.”

And then the media pack moved on to allegations about campaign donations, an attack angle the The Age reporter in particular seemed keen on exploring. Hanson dismissed the claims outright, saying “these are false allegations” and attributing them to “disgruntled former members of the party.”

Amid the circus of fishing-style questions, I challenged the selective scrutiny, drawing comparisons with past political controversies that had received a vastly different level of attention from the same media outlets.

Imagine if that same relentless scrutiny was applied across the board … especially to the political parties many of these journalists likely voted for.

This is exactly why independent journalism matters.

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