Australian senator Pauline Hanson, leader of the far-right One Nation party, was barred from Parliament for seven consecutive Senate sitting days after wearing a burqa in the chamber to protest fellow senators’ refusal to consider her bill banning full-face coverings. The 71-year-old had previously caused outrage in 2017 with a similar stunt but was not punished then. On Monday, she was suspended for the day, and after refusing to apologize, the Senate passed a censure motion Tuesday, one of the harshest penalties against a senator in decades.
Hanson criticized the decision, calling it hypocritical since there is no formal dress code, and said voters in the 2028 election would judge her, not colleagues. Senators, including Malaysian-born Penny Wong, condemned her act as mocking and vilifying Islam, harming social cohesion. Other Muslim senators, Mehreen Faruqi and Fatima Payman, described the stunt as disgraceful and shameful. Advocacy groups also highlighted Hanson’s repeated pattern of targeting Muslims and minorities.
