Senate proceedings ground to a halt on Monday when far-right One Nation leader Pauline Hanson entered the chamber draped in a black burka, minutes after colleagues blocked her latest attempt to introduce a bill banning full-face coverings in public.
The Queensland senator sat silently at her desk for several minutes before removing the garment when ordered by the president of the senate. The spectacle triggered immediate fury from across the political spectrum.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim, branded the act “blatant racism”. Independent senator Fatima Payman called it “disgraceful”. Government leader Penny Wong condemned the stunt as “disrespectful” to the diverse communities senators represent and questioned whether Hanson was “worthy” of holding office.
Wong moved unsuccessfully to suspend Hanson for refusing to remove the burka when first instructed. Labor and Greens senators accused her of using Muslim women as political props to stoke division.
Hanson later defended the provocation on social media, writing: “If they don’t want me wearing it, ban the burka.”
The incident marks the second time Hanson has worn the garment in parliament. In 2017 she staged an almost identical protest during her campaign for a national ban, removing the burka only after being recognised to speak.
Monday’s bill was rejected before it could even be tabled, with crossbench and opposition senators arguing it targeted a tiny minority of Australian Muslim women and served no security purpose that existing laws did not already cover.
Hanson has long courted controversy with anti-immigration rhetoric. Her 1996 maiden speech warned Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”; two decades later she claimed the country risked being “swamped by Muslims”.
Critics say the repeated burka theatrics reveal more about Hanson’s politics than about public safety. Supporters, however, celebrated the stunt as a bold stand against what they see as creeping Islamisation.
As migration and multiculturalism return to the forefront of Australian politics ahead of the next federal election, Hanson’s provocation has once again thrust cultural and religious attire into a debate many Muslim women would prefer to have without her.
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