Sydney — A far-right Australian politician sparked outrage Monday after donning a burqa on the nation’s parliament, in a show that different lawmakers condemned as racist, unsafe and disrespectful.
Pauline Hanson of the anti-immigration One Nation occasion was searching for to introduce a invoice within the Senate that may ban full face coverings in Australia — a coverage she has campaigned on for many years.
Simply minutes after different lawmakers blocked her from introducing that invoice, she returned carrying a black burqa and sat down.
Her show was meet by outrage from her fellow senators.
Australian Greens chief within the Senate Larissa Waters stated the transfer was “the middle finger to people of faith.”
“It is extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.
International Minister Penny Wong, who additionally serves as chief of the federal government within the Senate, condemned it as “disrespectful.”
Senator Pauline Hanson, chief of Australia’s One Nation political occasion, wears a burqa within the Senate chamber at Parliament Home in Canberra, Australia, Nov. 24, 2025.
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
“All of us in this place have a great privilege in coming into this chamber,” Wong stated. “We represent in our states, people of every faith, of every faith, of all backgrounds. And we should do so decently.”
Hanson refused to take away the burqa and the Senate was suspended.
It’s the second time she has donned the Muslim clothes in parliament.
In 2017, she wore a full burqa within the Senate to focus on what she stated had been the safety points the garment posed, linking it to terror.
In an announcement posted later Monday on a Fb account that she endorses, Hanson known as her actions a protest towards the Senate rejecting her proposed invoice.
“So if the Parliament won’t ban it, I will display this oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb that risk our national security and the ill-treatment of women on the floor of our parliament so that every Australian knows what’s at stake,” Hanson wrote. “If they don’t want me wearing it — ban the burqa.”
Unbiased Senator Fatima Payman appears to be like on as One Nation occasion chief Pauline Hanson wears a burqa within the Senate chamber at Parliament Home in Canberra, Australia, Nov. 24, 2025.
AAP/Mick Tsikas/REUTERS
Hanson has beforehand described Islam as “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own,” and she or he claimed in a 2016 speech that Australia was being “swamped by Muslims.”
Her occasion has seen its help among the many public improve because the nation’s most important conservative opposition stay beset by infighting. A ballot this month reported by The Australian Monetary Overview confirmed the One Nation occasion with a nonetheless modest, however file 18% help.
That comes as a authorities envoy stated in September that Australia had did not deal with persistent and intensifying Islamophobia.
