July 16, 2026 — 9:17amOne Nation leader Pauline Hanson has taken a break from her speaking tour of England to spend time with her benefactor, billionaire Gina Rinehart, at a luxury resort in Sicily.Photos posted to Instagram and first revealed in The Australian Financial Review show Hanson spending time poolside at the Grand Hotel San Pietro in the resort town of Taormina, while Rinehart swims.One Nation leader Pauline Hanson spotted in Italy with mining magnate Gina Rinehart.Rinehart was in Taormina for a fashion show put on by Italian label Dolce e Gabbana on Monday. Rinehart is known to wear the high-end brand, once making headlines by appearing at the CEO Magazine 2022 Executive Of The Year Awards in Sydney in $1600 bejewelled Dolce e Gabbana thongs.Hanson did not flag the trip on her social media, even as she posted on the same day to X and Instagram about supermarkets squeezing local farmers for profits and the threats of foreign ownership.The One Nation leader has been overseas since parliament rose for the winter recess almost two weeks ago, meeting leaders of Britain’s far right.She has been filmed sitting down for an interview with anti-Islam extremists and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson. The podcast has not yet aired, but Robinson hailed Hanson as “one of the bravest ladies on the planet” and a future leader of Australia.Mining magnate Gina Rinehart taking a dip in the hotel pool.Her trip has proved controversial, as Hanson has been missing in action as several polls record a drop in her surging popularity in the wake of her historic address to the National Press Club.An exclusive Resolve Political Monitor poll shows support for One Nation has slipped three points in July to 26 per cent while support for the Coalition has risen by the same amount to 23 per cent. Labor support was steady at 28 per cent while the Greens were unchanged at 12 per cent.Nominated as preferred prime minister in June when Resolve included her alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, Hanson’s support tumbled in July by 8 points to 25 per cent.Other polls to record a One Nation slump this month include SkyPulse, Redbridge and Newspoll.Hanson has not responded to questions about her colleague, Senator Malcolm Roberts, who is under pressure to explain his praise for a notorious antisemitic image that he posted to his social media accounts, or his podcast appearances in which he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, endorsed conspiracy theorist Alex James and insisted the US was controlled by a “globalist” sect of bankers.Roberts’ frequent use of antisemitic images and conspiracies has been condemned by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Anti-Defamation Commission.Asked about his leader’s trip to Europe on Thursday, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce defended Hanson meeting people like British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson.“I don’t support so much of what Tommy Robertson does, but I think it’s incredibly important that we understand the social dynamic and how that came about,” Joyce said of the convicted felon.“Tommy Robertson only exists because of the fractious nature of where England has arrived at, and to deny that is to deny the facts. What we’ve got to do in Australia is make sure we don’t replicate the social disharmony that has brought that about.”The Grand Hotel San Pietro in Taormina, Sicily, Italy.Asked if Hanson had also met with Islamic leaders while in the UK, Joyce said the One Nation leader was “certainly talking to people in the Islamic community” and a Channel Seven Spotlight program would soon be released illustrating that.As for One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts sharing an image of a notorious antisemitic mural and describing it as a “most powerful” picture he’d ever seen, as revealed by this masthead, Joyce said: “I’m not here to start carpeting Malcolm. I’m not going to do that.”Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners