Australia's former anti-immigrant politician, Pauline Hanson is moving to Britain to escape lingering controversy over her warning that Australia was being swamped by Asians.
Australia's former anti-immigrant politician, Pauline Hanson, is to become an immigrant herself, moving to Britain to escape lingering controversy over her warning that Australia was being swamped by Asians.
Hanson, who went from fish-and-chip shop owner to form the One Nation party and turn it into a political force more than a decade ago, told Australia's Woman's Day magazine that she is selling her Queensland home and moving to the UK to find "peace".
"I'm going to be away indefinitely. Its pretty much goodbye forever," she said. "I've really had enough. I want peace in my life. I want contentment, and that's what I''m aiming for."
Hanson won fame in 1996, entering national parliament as an independent calling for cuts to Aboriginal welfare and immigration from Australia's regional neighbours.
Her nationalist One Nation party drew a million votes at its 1998 peak, but she lost her seat and was later convicted of electoral fraud and briefly went to jail.
Released in 2003 after her conviction was overturned, the red-headed mother of four left politics and became a minor celebrity, at one time entering a TV dancing competition.
Hanson said Australia has changed too much for her liking, even though some political analysts had speculated in recent weeks that the mood of the country ahead of elections later this year once again favours her views.
"Sadly, the land of opportunity is no more applicable," she told the magazine.
A surge in asylum seekers arrivals over the past year has again divided Australians and threatens to become an issue for elections later this year which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is on track to win, despite recently slipping opinion poll support.
Immigration is expected to push Australia's population from 22 million to around 35 million by 2050, with Rudd backing a "big Australia" that would be more economically self-sustaining, but which critics say would be unable to cope with accelerating climate shift and ageing infrastructure.
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