The Greens deputy leader could be the only witness in her defamation case over an allegedly racist tweet if legal bids by One Nation head Pauline Hanson succeed.
Lawyers for senators Hanson and Mehreen Faruqi appeared in the Federal Court on Friday where they discussed challenges by the One Nation leader to evidence sought to support the defamation case.
Senator Faruqi has sued over a September 2022 tweet by Senator Hanson, who wrote she should "pack (her) bags and piss off back to Pakistan".
The One Nation head’s tweet came in response to Senator Faruqi’s following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
She wrote she could not mourn the passing of the leader of a "racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples".
On Friday, Senator Hanson's barrister Timothy Smartt said his client would be questioning the admissibility of both lay and expert evidence sought to be used by the Greens deputy leader.
Nine affidavits about responses from people who saw Senator Hanson's tweet and who described their experiences with racism were irrelevant, Mr Smartt said.
The nine individuals were sourced after Senator Faruqi and her lawyers put up a survey on their social media feeds asking people whether they had been offended, humiliated or insulted by the tweet.
Each response was by someone in a minority and some, like a Jewish man, were not relevant to the issues in the case, Mr Smartt said.
The One Nation leader has also attacked expert evidence on racism and the phrase "Go back to where you came from" which Senator Faruqi wishes to use in her case.
Senator Faruqi's barrister Saul Holt KC said if the legal bids were successful, there would only be one witness in the case, the Greens deputy leader herself.
She is seeking $150,000 from Senator Hanson in the lawsuit, claiming the tweet breached the Racial Discrimination Act by insulting, offending, humiliating and intimidating herself and others with Pakistani backgrounds.
A five-day trial before Justice Angus Stewart is set to begin on April 29.
However, the matter will come back before the court on February 29 for a hearing where Senator Hanson can make full arguments on her objections to the Greens senator's evidence.
