The One Nation senator’s controversial return to an old tactic has sparked fury in parliament and shut down proceedings.
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson has sparked uproar and a Senate shutdown after she wore a burqa on the floor of Parliament.
Seven years after she sparked controversy by pulling the same stunt, she marched into the Senate on Monday afternoon after her request to table a bill banning religious coverings was denied.
“Shame on you,” Senator Fatima Payman shouted in response.
Greens leader Larissa Waters slammed the move as “racist”.
“Really, what has happened today … is the middle finger to people of faith,“ she said.
“It is extremely racist and unsafe. Senator Hanson, all of us in this place have a great privilege in coming into this chamber, a great privilege.”
During the melee, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted “get her out!” as the Deputy Senator Slade Brockman told her to stop speaking.
At that point, Payman said the conduct was “disgraceful”.
“It’s absolutely unconstitutional. This needs to be dealt with immediately before we proceed.
“It’s disgraceful.”
Thorpe then shouted that the Senate was “unsafe” as the Greens Senator Mehreen Saeed Faruqi again demanded action.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters requested that the Deputy President Slade Brockman review his decision, given that “clearly what has happened today is not a genuine demonstration of faith”.
“In fact, it is the middle finger to people of faith,” Waters said.
Senate President Sue Lines then took the chair, declaring the outfit “a prop” and asking her to remove herself from the chamber.
Senate leader Penny Wong then called for a vote on removing Hanson from the chamber as senators continued to shout, “Get her out”.
Speaking to news.com.au, Hanson said she stood by her decision and her critics were “hypocrites”.
“I have a lot of people coming to me saying, ‘Why can they wear the full burqa? And I can’t wear a helmet in some places, and especially banks,” she said.
“So the public feels they have been treated totally differently. So this has been ongoing for quite some time.
“What happened then was, as soon as I started to introduce the bill, I was shut down.
“And, you know, for Penny Wong to get up and say, you know, this is a place where we may have differences in policies and that type of thing. Well, that’s an absolute joke, because, you know, they won’t accept my policies.
“They shut it down, so it’s not having different opinions. It’s either their way or the highway, and I’m pretty fed up with it.
“So if my bill were to ban the burqa, well then you wouldn’t have a problem with me wearing one on the floor of Parliament. So it did.”
Hanson said she was not racist.
“Senator Thorpe was saying I’m racist, you know, that’s a pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?” she said.
“I respect people’s religions, okay, and I adhere to Section 116 of the Australian Constitution about religious observance.
“I’ve had no problem with that, but the burqa is not a religious requirement, and that’s been called out by Islamic clerics. These people don’t assimilate, and it’s controlling women.
“Here they constantly talk about, in the Greens and everyone else, women’s rights. We’re fighting for women’s rights, equal pay, equal you know, domestic violence, we’re clearly calling that women’s rights.
“If you ban the burqa, some of these men cannot force their women to wear the burqa”
In 2017, the One Nation party leader was rebuked by the Turnbull Government for entering the Senate chamber wearing a black burqa.
Then leader of the Government in the Senate, the Attorney-General George Brandis, told Hanson that the ruling Coalition had no intention of banning the burqa.
He warned Hanson against indulging in behaviour that Muslim Australians would find offensive.
“Senator Hanson, no, we will not be banning the burqa,” he said in 2017.
“Senator Hanson, I’m not going to pretend to ignore the stunt that you have tried to pull today by arriving in the chamber dressed in a burqa when we all know you are not an adherent of the Islamic faith.
“I would caution you and counsel you, Senator Hanson, with respect, to be very very careful of the offence you may do to the religious sensibilities of other Australians.
“We have about half a million Australians in this country of the Islamic faith, and the vast majority of them are law-abiding, good Australians, and Senator Hanson, it is absolutely consistent with being a good law-abiding Australian and a strict, adherent, Muslim.
“To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments, is an appalling thing to do, and I would ask you to reflect on your behaviour.”
At the time, his rebuke prompted Labor, Greens and some crossbenchers to stand and applaud.
Wong told Hanson: “It is one thing to wear religious dress as a sincere act of faith and another to wear it here as a stunt in the Senate chamber.”
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