BRISBANE, QLD. — A furious Bruce Woodley, legendary member of Australian musical group The Seekers and co-writer of I Am Australian, took aim at Pauline Hanson’s racist and grifting Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after the iconic song was used during its opening ceremony in Brisbane on Saturday without Mr Woodley’s permission.
I Am Australian is widely regarded as an unofficial Australian, and inclusive anthem celebrating Australia’s national identity “We are one, but we are many, but from all the lands of earth we come …” was played by Hanson over the Brisbane CPAC’s public address system after the national anthem and Waltzing Matilda.
One only has to listen to the song’s lyrics to realise the utter hypocrisy of Pauline Hanson and those who follow her and clap along like seals.
Its appearance at a conference featuring racist Pauline Hanson has sparked an angry response from Bruce Woodley, one of the men who helped create it.
Woodley made his position clear: he does not want the music of The Seekers associated with Pauline Hanson, One Nation, or what the redneck racist movement and political party represents.
The song – originally co-written by Woodley and the Bushwackers’ Dobe Newton in 1987 – was also advertised as part of the official conference program agenda.
“No permission was either sought or given by me for the use of my song,” Woodley said today.
The controversy is particularly pointed given that Hanson had reportedly been threatened with legal action previously over the potential use of the song. Now, with the song having been performed at CPAC, the question of permission and the possible legal consequences returns to the spotlight.
“We said to each other ‘what planet is she on’?” Newton said about a previous Hanson election campaign.
“Bruce and I got a friend of ours to write a furious solicitor’s letter threatening to sue her, and she actually changed her mind.”
Hanson has a history of loving CPACs and has been following the Trump MAGA playbook since Trump was elected for the first time. To Hanson, Trump’s election was the model to copy for her own political CPR.
After all, Hanson did attend and address a ‘Put Australia First’ rally on Sunday, November 30, 2025, which was hosted by the ‘March for Australia’ and ‘Reignite Democracy Australia’ movements that all had direct and indirect ties to the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN) of the self-confessed neo-Nazi, Thomas Sewell.
Tommy Robinson was also invited to attend the 2025 ‘Put Australia’ first rally of racist redneck cookers, but was refused an Australian visa.
The only people who today need to be “bound down by iron chains” are Pauline Hanson, her party members and her racist seal-clapping followers.
Or perhaps, given Hanson played Waltzing Matilda at her Brisbane CPAC rally as well, she should jump up, put herself into a tuckerbag and jump into a billabong.
