Senator Hanson drew criticism after she and Mrs Rinehart were sighted at a luxury Italian resort and attending a Dolce & Gabbana fashion event in Sicily. Questioned when she returned to Australia, Senator Hanson did not go into detail on how the bill was split, but insisted taxpayers had not paid for the luxury weekend. Senator Hanson, who was also gifted a private plane by Mrs Rinehart in April, defended her billionaire friend, who inherited Hancock Prospecting from her late father, saying she had “done it tough”. On Monday, Senator Hanson lost an appeal over a Federal Court finding she had made a racist remark towards deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi. In response to a post on social media soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Senator Hanson told Senator Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan”.