Senator Pauline Hanson’s latest burqa stunt in Parliament has set off a fresh wave of understandable anger and frustration, with politicians, community leaders and advocates all lining up to condemn it.
The One Nation leader walked into the Senate wearing a full black burqa during a vote on Monday, after failing to move a bill that would have banned Islamic head coverings from public places, forcing the chamber into chaos and, eventually, a suspension of proceedings.
What went down in the Senate with Pauline Hanson’s burqa?
The stunt unfolded during the final sitting period of the year, with Hanson entering the chamber in the burqa shortly after her bill was blocked. This is the second time she has done something like this in Parliament, following her original burqa appearance in 2017, which drew widespread criticism at the time.
On Monday, when she refused to remove the garment or leave the chamber, tempers flared and normal business ground to a halt.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi was blunt in her response on the floor, saying, “A dress code might be a choice of the senators, but racism should not be the choice of the Senate. This is a racist senator, displaying blatant racism and Islamophobia,” as the deputy president repeatedly tried to shut her down.
Independent Senator Fatima Payman called Hanson’s behaviour “disgraceful” and added, “If this is about the dress code, she is disrespecting a faith. She is disrespecting the Muslims out there – Muslim Australians. It’s absolutely unconstitutional. This needs to be dealt with immediately before we proceed.”
Senate President Sue Lines then entered the chamber and ordered Hanson to leave, ruling that using religious dress as a prop was disrespectful to Parliament, but Hanson refused. Eventually the Senate was suspended.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe claimed it felt unsafe for many in the room, saying, “We have a right to be in a safe workplace and that racist is making it unsafe”.
How community leaders and ministers reacted
Outside the chamber, the criticism has only intensified. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) described Hanson’s decision to wear the burqa into the Senate as “a calculated act of racism, designed to provoke, humiliate, and inflame”.
AFIC President Dr Rateb Jneid said, “This is not the first time Pauline Hanson has done this. It is part of a pattern of behaviour that has repeatedly vilified Muslims, migrants, and minorities. That Parliament continues to allow this kind of racism to play out on the Senate floor is an indictment on the institution itself.”
AFIC also reaffirmed “its support for the dignity, freedom, and safety of Muslim women, including their right to wear the burqa, niqab, or hijab without fear of ridicule or politicisation”.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek linked the stunt directly to real-world harm, telling Today it was “disappointing behaviour” and adding, “I don’t remember the last time someone in a burqa robbed a bank. Two weeks ago, there was a queue of neo-Nazis standing outside NSW Parliament House, and I didn’t hear her joining with ASIO to admit that the fastest growing source of danger in the Australian community is right-wing extremism.
“The only thing that she’s ensured today is that some schoolgirl wearing a headscarf is going to get bullied on the train on the way to school.”
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth dismissed the whole thing as “shenanigans” typical of the last sitting week, while Greens leader Larissa Waters called it a “pathetic stunt” and said, “I’m all for re-wearing outfits, but not when it’s an outfit that’s insulting to anyone of faith in the country, and insulting to anyone who wants parliament to actually help people and fix the cost of living and bring down the cost of housing. It’s shameless attention seeking that doesn’t actually help anyone or make anyone’s lives better. It actually just fuels racism. It’s dangerous and pathetic,” per 9News.
Why did Pauline Hanson wear a burqa to Parliament?
Hanson has tried to frame the move as something more principled than a headline grab. In a press release, she claimed her critics were “hypocrites”, alleging without examples that Greens members had been allowed to wear “symbols of terrorism” in Parliament without censure.
“This is not about religious expression. This is about community safety, national security, women’s rights, public civility and social cohesion,” she insisted.
Why this keeps happening – and what could change
AFIC argues this incident is not just about Hanson, but about the rules of the game that let this kind of stunt keep happening. In its statement, the organisation said “the fact that the Senate was forced to suspend proceedings due to her actions should be seen as a failure of parliamentary safeguards” and that “condemnation is no longer enough. There must be structural accountability”.
It is calling for Parliament to urgently review and strengthen its codes of conduct, standing orders and dress protocols so that “racially motivated stunts are explicitly prohibited”, “repeat offenders are subject to formal disciplinary action or censure”, and “minority groups are not used as political punchlines inside our national institutions”.
Right now, a lot of what happens in the chamber depends on precedent, the judgment of whoever is presiding, and whether a majority of senators are willing to back sanctions in the moment. Hanson’s 2017 burqa stunt produced outrage but no major rule changes, which is how she was able to repeat it in 2025 and again turn a religious garment into a political costume on the Senate floor.
For Muslim communities and many in Parliament, the question after this week isn’t just what Hanson will do next, but whether the institution is finally willing to change its own rules so that this kind of racist theatre isn’t simply allowed to play out, over and over, at their expense.
Lead image: Instagram
The post ‘Disgraceful’, ‘Racist’, ‘Pathetic’: Furious Backlash To Pauline Hanson’s Burqa Stunt appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
