Pauline Hanson suspended from Senate after second burka stunt
The One Nation leader forced a Senate suspension when she refused to leave the chamber after a repeat of her 2017 burka stunt.
Pauline Hanson has been suspended from the Senate after wearing a black burka into the chamber, a repeat of her stunt from more than seven years ago, prompting a swift rebuke from the Senate leaders of both major parties.
The One Nation leader entered the chamber wearing an Islamic head-covering after she was denied leave to table a bill to have burkas and face-coverings banned in public spaces.
The stunt, which was previously employed by the senator more than seven years ago when her party tried to pass similar legislation banning the Islamic head covering, was slapped down by both Labor Senate leader Penny Wong and Coalition Senate leader Anne Ruston.
“All of us in this place have a great privilege in coming into this chamber … and we represent in our states people of every faith of all backgrounds and we should do so decently,” Senator Wong said.
“What we should not do, whatever views we may have on policy, is to be this disrespectful of the chamber and people of faith. The sort of disrespect you are engaging in is not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate.”
Senator Ruston said while she respected the “strongly held views of people in this chamber”, she called for her colleagues to “respect others” while in the Senate.
Senator Hanson was ordered to remove the burka or risk being suspended from the Senate for the rest of sitting after Senator Wong moved to have her removed. The One Nation Leader refused to leave the chamber, before the Senate sitting was suspended.
Senator Hanson said she was “denied the right to ban the burka”, which prompted her controversial stunt.
She told Sky News she was exercising her right to move a private member’s bill to prohibit the burka or full-face coverings in public places.
“I think it goes against our culture and our way of life and that’s why I wanted to introduce the bill,” she said.
Senator Hanson said she was denied the right to move the bill, which prompted her to leave the chamber, put the burka on, and come back wearing it.
“Straight away they’ve denied me the right to ban the burka ... so I thought, well, if you won’t let me ban the burka, then I’m going to wear it,” she said.
“Well, didn’t that upset them.
“They don’t want me to wear the burka. They don’t want to ban it but they don’t want me to wear it.
“They’re a bunch of hypocrites.”
She said in a statement her proposals would bring Australia in line with European countries like Italy and France, and were necessary to defend the rights of women.
“Burqas not only hide the identities of the women who are often forced to wear them. They are a mechanism for these women to be controlled by men from their families or religion, to remind them they are considered property or chattels rather than individuals with rights, freedom and agency. This is completely incompatible with Australian culture, law and values, and basic women’s rights.
“A ban on burkas and similar Islamic garb which hides people’s identity is all the more urgent as the Albanese government continues to repatriate extremists who joined Islamic State and offer refuge to Gazans who support the terrorist group Hamas.”
The move sparked uproar from members of the Greens and the crossbench, who began furiously protesting at Senator Hanson’s stunt.
Independent senator Fatima Payman said she was disrespecting Islam by donning the burka during Senate sitting. “She is disrespecting a faith, she is disrespecting the Muslims out there, Muslim Australians. It is absolutely unconstitutional. This needs to be dealt with before we proceed,” she told the Senate.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who is currently locked in a Federal Court appeal launched by Senator Hanson that she racially vilified Senator Faruqi last year, said racism “should not be the choice of the Senate”.
“This is a racist senator, displaying blatant racist and Islamophobia … and someone should pull her up on that,” she said.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe shouted that “someone should rip it (the burka) off her head” during a division.
Additional reporting: Bimini Plesser
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