Pauline Hanson slams the Australian Defence Force after soldiers were pictured making Aboriginal spears

Published: 02:45, 16 June 2026 | Updated: 02:59, 16 June 2026 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 Ngunnawal traditions. The four-day programme tasked soldiers with finding appropriate trees to craft clubs, spears, axes and coolamons, before taking part in a series of cultural tours. However, the One Nation leader questioned the programme'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. Pauline Hanson has slammed defence officials as 'out of touch' after soldiers took part in a four day course about Indigenous history in May Army personnel had to find the correct trees to make craft clubs, spears, axes and coolamons Hanson accused defence minister Richard Marles of being 'woke' '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 programme. 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 programme 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. The program aimed to connect soldiers with Indigenous history, culture and Ngunnawal traditions 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.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.