An Australian senator sparked outrage by wearing a burqa in parliament after calling for a ban on Muslim attire.
Pauline Hanson has come under fire from fellow senators, with one accusing her of “blatant racism”. Her refusal to remove the item brought proceedings in the Senate to a halt.
The Queensland senator from the anti-immigration One Nation Party was seeking to introduce legislation to ban full face coverings in public, a policy she has long campaigned for.
This is the second time she has worn a face and body covering on Capitol Hill, and she said her actions were a protest against the Senate’s rejection of her bill.
On Monday, she returned wearing a black burka shortly after other lawmakers blocked her introduction of the bill.
“This is a racist senator who displays blatant racism,” said Meren Farooqi, a Muslim Greens senator from New South Wales.
Western Australian independent senator Fatima Payman said the conduct was “disgraceful”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who heads the Senate government, called it “disrespectful.”
“We represent all faiths and all faiths from all backgrounds in our state, and we need to do that,” she said.
She added that Hanson was “unfit to be a member of the Australian Senate” and moved a motion to suspend Hanson for failing to remove his robes.
“Ban the burqa if you don’t want me to wear it,” Hanson wrote on Facebook.
She previously wore the burqa to parliament in 2017 and called for a national ban then as well.
In 2016, Hanson said in his first speech to the Australian Senate that Australia was at risk of being “swamped by Muslims”.
This is in the same context as her warning in a speech in 1996 that Korea was in danger of being “swamped by Asians.”
