The Australian prime minister, John Howard, has made one of his strongest attacks yet on a controversial member of parliament, Pauline Hanson, saying recent remarks fanned racist sentiment and had bordered on the deranged.

Mr Howard was responding to a parliamentary speech by Miss Hanson in which she said aboriginal land-rights were a scam.

She spoke of the aborginal industry -- as she put it -- peddling lies to prey on the collective conscience of Australians.

Reacting to Miss Hanson's growing popularity in opinion polls, Mr Howard said she and what he called her splinter group party, One Nation, had a flimsy grasp on reality.