The Australian Senate descended into chaos on Monday, November 24, after the leader of the right-wing One Nation party entered the chamber wearing a burqa.
According to Mail Online, Pauline Hanson is seeking to introduce a bill that would ban full-face coverings in Australia, a policy she has campaigned on for decades.
Just minutes after other lawmakers blocked her from introducing that bill, she returned wearing a black burqa and a floral dress that cut off above the knee.
The 71-year-old’s display was met by outrage from her fellow senators, who branded it as ‘racist’.
However, Hanson refused to remove the burqa, and the Senate was suspended.
It is the second time she has donned the Muslim clothing in parliament.
In 2017, she wore a full burqa in the Senate to highlight what she said were the security issues the garment posed, linking it to terror.
Hanson has also described Islam as ‘a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own’.
Hanson’s latest stunt was condemned by Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi under parliamentary privilege.
‘This is a racist senator displaying blatant racism and Islamophobia, President, and someone should be pulling her up on that,’ Faruqi said.
‘It is you in the chair, you should be pulling her up on that.’
Independent senator Fatima Payman, who wears a hijab, also expressed anger.
‘She is disrespecting a faith, she is disrespecting the Muslims out there, Muslim Australians.
‘It’s absolutely unconstitutional. This needs to be dealt with immediately before we proceed.’
Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined the criticism, calling for respect and decency in the chamber.
‘I would say this to you … All of us in this place have a great privilege of coming into this chamber and we represent people of every faith, of all backgrounds, and we should do so decently,’ Wong said.
‘And what we should not do in this place is to be disrespectful of the chamber and of people of faiths.’
