Speaking at a Seven West Media event in Perth, the One Nation leader was quizzed over her friendship with Australia's richest person.
"This is a woman that's done it tough ... and you think that she's come with a silver spoon? She didn't," Senator Hanson said on Tuesday.
"She had to borrow everything and was flat out in the very start to pay the bills. She's built up that company.
"A very smart, clever woman and even now to this day ... who gives jobs to thousands of Australians? Who pays one of the companies' biggest taxes in the state?"
Senator Hanson has received criticism after she visited Sicily with Ms Rinehart, including attending a high-profile fashion show, prompting questions over who paid the bill for the trip.
"It didn't cost the taxpayer one cent for my trip overseas. Not one cent," the One Nation leader told the event.
Senator Hanson, who was gifted a private plane from Rinehart in April, added she would embark on a national tour ahead of the next election to help formulate policy, denying criticism she represented extreme views.
She flagged support for US President Donald Trump's approach to deporting illegal migrants by offering them one-way plane trips out of the country with the option to apply to return later.
Senator Hanson again denied advocating for the return of the White Australia policy after citing the discriminatory immigration scheme in an interview with UK far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson during her European trip.
"I have never advocated for the White Australia policy," she said on Tuesday.
In the interview with Robinson, Senator Hanson was asked how Australia had ended up with "Pakistanis, Somalis, all of these African problems with violent Africans".
She told the anti-immigration activist it began with the abolition of the White Australia policy.
About three dozen uniformed and plain clothes police were deployed around and inside the Crown resort complex in Perth, where the One Nation leader was speaking.
About 200 protesters were out the front chanting "we say no to white Australia".
The Perth appearance follows a colourful interview with One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce on ABC's flagship current affairs program, 7.30, on Monday night.
He shouted at his dog during the interview, in which he defended Senator Hanson's interview with Robinson.
Mr Joyce yelled "sit down" at something happening off camera, midway through a sentence.
"Sorry, it's the dog," he said.
The veteran politician and former Nationals leader later apologised for the canine, which "just started to bail up".
The Liberals are also in damage control after comments from one of their senators, Alex Antic, when he declined to rule out a partnership between One Nation and his own party in South Australia.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor slapped down the proposal.
"That will not be happening. I can assure you of that," he told reporters on the Gold Coast.
"The Liberal Party is strong in South Australia and will remain strong in South Australia, and there won't be any kind of merger or coalition.
"Whatever Alex's view ... that is what's going to happen, we won't be merging."
