Australian actor Paul Hogan reportedly called Senator Pauline Hanson a 'pelican' in response to her comments on monoculture. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The Crocodile Dundee star Hogan, tracked down by the Australian Financial Review to Venice Beach, California, called Hanson a 'pelican'. He also described her as a 'stupid boofhead living in the past' and compared her to US President Donald Trump.
Earlier, Hanson in a Senate speech cited Hogan and Norman Gunston as examples of 'Australian monoculture'. Hogan's response sparked debate about the meaning of 'pelican' in Australian slang.
The word 'pelican' in Australian slang means a fool or a clown. Hogan used the word in his 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. Actor Russell Crowe also called a sponsor a 'pelican' after the 2014 NRL grand final.
The usage dates back to Shakespeare's King Lear, where Lear calls his daughters 'pelican daughters'. However, Hogan's reference to Shakespeare is unlikely.
Hogan criticized Hanson's idea of monoculture, saying: 'We're all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who have been in Australia for 60,000 years. I want to die in a multicultural Australia!'
The Australian National Dictionary has no separate entry for 'pelican', but online consensus is that it means a fool or a clown. However, this is unfair to the bird, which BirdLife Australia calls 'highly mobile' and can 'soar to heights of up to 3,000m'.
Hogan's comment added fuel to Hanson's controversy machine. But it was clearly not meant as a compliment.