Pauline Hanson labels feminists ‘pathetic’ on burka ban

Pauline Hanson has condemned feminists as “pathetic’’ for not pushing for a burka ban.

Senator Pauline Hanson at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Pauline Hanson has condemned feminists as “pathetic” for not pushing for the banning of the burka ahead of a motion calling for full face coverings to be removed where “identification is necessary and security is an issue”.

The One Nation Leader said she was putting up the motion to test where Scott Morrison stood on the issue, arguing that full face coverings were a means of suppressing women and not a symbol of religious freedom.

She has amassed a petition of more than 23,300 names in support of a call for an immediate ban on the “wearing of the Islamic headdress, the niqab and burka” because they are “confrontational and intimidating”.

She said the garment was “un-Australian” and should not be ­allowed in schools, hospitals, banks, courts, sporting events and government buildings, arguing it was preventing Islamic women gaining employment and fully participating in society.

“In a society we want to feel ­inclusive, yet these women are covering up fully when they go swimming. My suggestion is: Australia’s not for you,” she said. “They’ve made themselves basically unemployable.

“They come out here and wear that. Do they ever apply for jobs? I couldn’t possibly put one on if I had my takeaway shop around the gas cookers and burners.”

She said it was important for parliament to take a stand against Islamic fundamentalism, and to embrace Muslims and people of other faiths who “wish to adopt and truly respect our country and our culture”.

The motion, which Senator Hanson hopes to move today, comes after Denmark last month introduced a ban on face veils. Bans have also been introduced in France, Belgium, Austria, The Netherlands and Bulgaria.

“It annoys me when you’ve got other members of parliament here screaming about equality and equal rights and equal pay and all the rest of it,” Senator Hanson said. “Yet they are quite happy to see women suppressed to have to wear this. That’s not equality. Where are the feminists? Where are they saying anything about this? They are pathetic. A lot of these women are forced to wear it … so it’s the suppression of women.”

In August last year, Senator Hanson wore a burka into the Senate chamber, declaring it did not belong in parliament and calling on the government to ban the garment — an action that drew an emotional response from then government Senate leader George Brandis.

Then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said last year parliament did not have the power to ban the burka and argued it would need to be removed anyway when women were required to show their faces for identification purposes.

“They obviously have to show their face when the law requires it for identity, when they’re in court or a police officer requires them to check identification or something like that,” he said. “It’s not something the commonwealth parliament has the power to do. People in Australia are entitled to wear basically whatever they like.”