A far-right Australian politician yesterday sparked outrage after donning a burqa at the nation’s parliament, in a display that other lawmakers slammed as “racist.”
Pauline Hanson of the One Nation anti-immigration party was seeking to introduce a bill in the Australian Senate that would ban full face coverings — a policy she has campaigned on for decades.
Just minutes after other lawmakers blocked her from introducing that bill, she returned wearing a black burqa and sat down.
Photo: EPA
Her display was met by outrage from her fellow senators.
Australian Greens leader in the Senate Larissa Waters said the move was “the middle finger to people of faith.”
“It is extremely racist and unsafe,” Waters added.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢), who also serves as leader of the government in the Senate, condemned it as “disrespectful.”
“All of us in this place have a great privilege in coming into this chamber,” Wong said. “We represent in our states, people of every faith, of every faith, of all backgrounds, and we should do so decently.”
Hanson refused to remove the burqa and the Senate was suspended.
It is the second time she has donned the Muslim clothing in parliament. In 2017, she wore a full burqa in the Senate to highlight what she said were the security issues the garment posed, linking it to terror.
Hanson has described Islam as “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own.”
Her party has increased its support as the nation’s main conservative opposition remains beset by infighting, with a poll this month in the Australian Financial Review showing it with a record 18 percent support.
That comes after a government envoy in September said that Australia had failed to tackle persistent and intensifying Islamophobia.
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