First term (2016–2022)
In mid-2015, Hanson announced that she would contest the Senate for Queensland at the 2016 federal election, and also announced the endorsement of several other candidates throughout Australia. She campaigned on a tour she called "Fed Up" in 2015 and spoke at a Reclaim Australia rally. Hanson won a seat in the Senate at the election, and One Nation won 9% of the vote in Queensland. According to the rules governing the allocation of Senate seats following a double dissolution, Hanson served a full six-year term. Hanson secured a spot on the National Broadband Network parliamentary committee.
After being elected to the parliament, she and other One Nation senators voted with the governing Coalition on a number of welfare cuts, and usually supported the government.
On 17 August 2017, Hanson received criticism after wearing a burqa, which she claims "oppresses women", into the Senate. Attorney-General George Brandis got a standing ovation from Labor and Greens senators after he gave an "emotional" speech, telling Hanson, "To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do." Following the incident, polling found that 57% of Australians supported Hanson's call to ban the burka in public places, with 44% "strongly" supporting a ban. In August 2017, the party's constitution was changed, for Hanson to become party President for as long as she may wish and to choose her successor, who may also continue until resignation.
On 22 March 2018, Hanson announced that One Nation would back the Turnbull government's corporate tax cuts. She subsequently reversed her position, citing the failure of the government to cut immigration levels and support coal-fired power.
On 15 October 2018, Hanson proposed an "It's OK to be white" motion in the Australian Senate intended to acknowledge the "deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation". It was supported by most senators from the governing Liberal–National Coalition, but was defeated 31–28 by opponents who called it a racist slogan from the white supremacist movement. The following day, the motion was "recommittal", and this time rejected unanimously by senators in attendance, with its initial supporters in the Liberal–National Coalition saying they had voted for it due to an administrative error (One Nation did not attend the recommittal vote).
On 18 September 2019, the Liberal government announced that Hanson would co-chair the newly announced parliamentary inquiry into family law along with Kevin Andrews. She proposed a parliament motion advocating opposition to the proposed Great Reset of the World Economic Forum, on the belief that it is cover for creating a New World Order. Her proposal was defeated by 37 votes to 2.
In 2019, Hanson campaigned against a ban on climbing Uluru, a sacred site for local Aboriginal people. Shortly before the ban came into effect in August, the Nine Network paid for Hanson's trip to Uluru, and on their A Current Affair program she was shown in a controversial episode climbing the rock.
Beginning in May 2019, Hanson was a regular contributor on the Nine Network's Today. She was removed from the role in July 2020 after describing people who lived in Melbourne public housing as drug addicts who couldn't speak English.
Following the 2019 federal election, One Nation obtained $2.8 million in electoral expenses from the Australian Electoral Commission. Later, the Commission required One Nation to repay $165,442 as money that had not been spent or not spent for electoral purposes. In addition, it is reported: "Hanson has personally agreed to an enforceable undertaking. And the party must in future make sure all invoices are in Hanson's name, the party's name or the name of a party officer. And make sure that all invoices match payment receipts, credit card or bank statements."
In June 2021, following media reports that the proposed national curriculum was "preoccupied with the oppression, discrimination and struggles of Indigenous Australians", the Senate approved a motion tabled by Hanson calling on the federal government to reject critical race theory, despite it not being included in the curriculum.
