Senator suspended from Australian parliament for burqa-wearing stunt

Sen. Pauline Hanson walked into the Senate wearing a burqa to protest fellow senators' refusal to consider her bill that would ban the burqa in public places.

An Australian senator campaigning for a national burqa ban was suspended Tuesday from parliament for the rest of the year after wearing the garment in the chamber.

Pauline Hanson, the 71-year-old leader of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrations One Nation minor party, was accused of performing a disrespectful stunt on Monday after she walked into the Senate wearing a burqa to protest fellow senators’ refusal to consider her bill that would ban the burqa and other full-face coverings in public places.

Senators suspended Hanson, who is not Muslim, for the rest of the day after she reportedly refused to leave the room or remove the burqa. Hanson’s bill to ban the burqa and other full-face coverings in public places was not voted on.

In the absence of an apology, the Senate passed a censure motion Tuesday that barred Hanson from seven consecutive Senate sitting days.

The Senate will be taking its annual break for the year on Thursday. Hanson’s suspension will continue when parliament resumes in February next year.

After her suspension was announced, Hanson claimed that One Nation “was stopped from even introducing a Bill, meaning the Parliament couldn’t have a debate.”

“That’s not democracy. The people will judge me when I face the next election. My future is in the people’s hands, not these gutless politicians,” she wrote.

Hanson had pulled the same political stunt in 2017 when she wore a burqa in the Senate as a form of protest, but she faced no consequences at the time.