The Australian Senate was suspended for more than one and a half hours Monday after a member strode into the chamber wearing a burqa as part of her protest against the Muslim garment.
Senator Pauline Hanson of the One Nation party, who is calling for burqas and face coverings to be banned across the country, was accused of “blatant racism” for her actions after being denied permission to introduce a bill that would ban the face-coverings in public.
She was subsequently slapped with a sanction preventing her from entering the Upper House chamber for the rest of the day, ABC News reports.
When she initially refused to leave the Senate floor, there was a heated exchange and President Sue Lines resorted to the rare move of suspending the chamber’s proceedings for more than one and a half hours.
Hanson was among the last politicians to leave the Senate on Monday afternoon, and on social media labelled her Senate colleagues as “hypocrites” for preventing her from introducing her burqa bill. She wrote:
If the parliament won’t ban it, I will display this oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb that risks our national security and the ill treatment of women on the floor of our parliament so that every Australian knows what’s at stake.
Independent senator Fatima Payman, who is the first woman to wear a hijab in parliament, described the One Nation leader’s move as “abhorrent and disrespectful to the chamber and the public.”
“For her to wear the burqa, walk in, and just not listen to the procedures or the ruling that was given before her is typical of her trying to stay relevant,” she lamented to ABC Radio.
“The fact that this is the last week of sitting for 2025 and the Senate is suspended … where are the priorities of the government and Pauline Hanson?”
Independent Senator Fatima Payman the first woman to wear a hijab in parliament, described the One Nation leader’s antics as “abhorrent and disrespectful to the chamber and the public.” (Alex Ellinghausen / Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images)
“This is a racist senator displaying blatant racism and Islamophobia,” said Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim senator from the state of New South Wales.
Both Penny Wong, leader of Australia’s left-wing Labor government in the Senate, and Anne Ruston, deputy Senate leader for the opposition coalition, condemned Hanson’s actions.
Wong called them “not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate” and moved the motion to suspend Hanson for failing to remove the garment.
Not everyone was against her move and Hanson did receive support outside the chamber.
This was the second time Senator Hanson had donned the burqa in Canberra’s parliament.
In 2017, amid a similar One Nation push to ban the head covering, she wore a similar if not identical item of clothing on the Senate floor.
Other countries have also been debating the wearing of Muslim garments and just what place they have in western societies.
As Breitbart News reported, the Austrian government said last week that it will implement a ban on young girls wearing Islamic headscarves in schools starting from the start of 2026.
Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr said that the coalition government in Vienna has come to a “successful compromise” after the Austrian constitutional court shot down a previous school ban for specifically targeting Muslims.
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