Far-right Australian senator Pauline Hanson criticized for wearing burqa in parliament to demand ban

Sydney — A far-right Australian politician sparked outrage Monday after donning a burqa in the country’s parliament, in a display that other lawmakers condemned as racist, unsafe and disrespectful.

Pauline Hanson, of the anti-immigration One Nation party, was seeking to introduce a bill in the Senate that prohibit covering the full face in Australia, a policy he has campaigned for for decades.

Just minutes after other lawmakers prevented her from introducing that bill, she returned dressed in a black burqa and sat down.

His display was met with outrage from his fellow senators.

Australian Greens leader in the Senate, Larissa Waters, said the measure was “a middle finger to people of faith”.

“It’s extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who also serves as the government’s leader in the Senate, condemned it as “disrespectful.”

“All of us in this place have the great privilege of coming to this chamber,” Wong said. “We represent people of all religions, all faiths and all backgrounds in our states. And we must do so decently.”

Hanson refused to remove his burqa and the Senate was suspended.

It is the second time he has dressed in Muslim clothing in parliament.

In 2017, she He wore a full burqa in the Senate to highlight what she said were the security problems posed by the garment, linking it to terrorism.

In a statement posted later Monday on a Facebook account she supports, Hanson called her actions a protest against the Senate’s rejection of her bill.

“So if Parliament does not ban it, I will display on the floor of our parliament this oppressive, radical and non-religious clothing that puts our national security and the mistreatment of women at risk so that all Australians know what is at stake,” Hanson wrote. “If you don’t want me to wear it, ban the burqa.”

Hanson previously described Islam as “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own” and claimed in a 2016 speech that Australia was being “flooded by Muslims”.

His party has seen support among the public rise as the country’s main conservative opposition remains beset by infighting. A poll this month published by The Australian Financial Review showed the One Nation party has a still modest but record 18% support.

This comes as a government envoy said in September that Australia had failed to address persistent and intensifying Islamophobia.