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28-11-2025
CANBERRA: An Australian senator has been suspended for a week after wearing a burka in parliament to push for a ban on the Muslim garment.
Pauline Hanson was condemned by fellow senators and later formally censured for the stunt on Monday, with one colleague accusing her of “blatant racism”.
The Queensland senator, of the anti-immigration One Nation party, was seeking to introduce a bill that would outlaw full face coverings in public, a policy she has long campaigned for.
It is the second time she has worn the garment which covers the face and body in parliament, and said her actions were in protest at the senate rejecting her bill.
Shortly after other lawmakers blocked her from introducing the bill on Monday, she returned wearing a black burka.
“This is a racist senator, displaying blatant racism,” said Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim Greens senator whom the Federal Court last year found was a victim of racial discrimination by Hanson, a judgement the latter is currently appealing.
Fatima Payman, an independent senator from the state of Western Australia, called the stunt “disgraceful”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who serves as leader of the government in the senate, on Tuesday moved a motion to censure Hanson, claiming she “has been parading prejudice as protest for decades”.
The motion, which passed 55 votes to five, states that Hanson’s actions were “intended to vilify and mock people on the basis of their religion” and were “disrespectful to Muslim Australians”.
Wong earlier argued Hanson was “not worthy of a member of the Australian senate”.
In a post on Facebook, Hanson wrote: “If they don’t want me wearing it ban the burka.”
She previously wore a burka to parliament in 2017, also calling for a national ban at the time.
In 2016, Hanson was criticized for her maiden speech to the Australian senate, in which she said the country was in danger of being “swamped by Muslims”.
It echoed her controversial first speech to the House of Representatives, made in 1996, in which she warned that the country was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”.
In 2017, the leader of Australia’s far-right One Nation party had worn a burka on the floor of the nation’s Senate.
Pauline Hanson’s entrance drew audible shock from other senators ahead of a bid by her party to ban the garment in Australia.
Government minister George Brandis condemned Ms Hanson’s stunt and “counselled and cautioned” her against causing offence to religious groups.
Brandis received a standing applause from opposition parties.
In an emotional speech, Brandis said Hanson’s actions risked alienating approximately 500,000 Australians who adhered to the Islamic faith.
“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 reflect on what you have done,” said Brandis, who is Australia’s attorney-general.
He added: “No, Senator Hanson, we will not ban the burka.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported Ms Hanson had elicited gasps during her entrance and one senator was heard to say “oh, what on earth”.
Senate president Stephen Parry confirmed she had been identified before entering the chamber. Hanson later removed the burka.
Her motion to ban the garment will be debated in the Senate later on Thursday. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
