The Australian Parliament is in uproar because Pauline Hanson wears the burqa in the Senate

The Australian parliament was in commotion on Monday after right-wing populist senator Pauline Hanson entered the chamber dressed in a burqa. This sparked outrage among Muslim lawmakers and forced the proceedings to be suspended.

Hanson arrived wearing a full face covering shortly after she was denied permission to introduce her bill to ban burqas and other facial coverings in public. The move led to shouts across the chamber as senators demanded she remove the garment. Senate leaders ultimately halted the session when she refused to do so.

Leaders of both major parties condemned the stunt. Labor Senate Leader and Foreign Minister Penny Wong described Hanson’s display as “unbecoming a member of the Australian Senate”, according to Reuters, and decided to suspend her after she refused to comply with instructions to remove the covering. Opposition Deputy Senate Leader Anne Ruston also criticized the law.

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Two Muslim senators condemned Hanson’s actions. Green Party Senator Mehreen Faruqi denounced the move. “This is a racist senator exhibiting blatant racism.” Independent Senator Fatima Payman also denounced the act as “disgraceful” and “shame”.

The incident marked the second time Hanson has worn a burqa in parliament. The 71-year-old senator first did this in 2017 as part of her long-term campaign against Islamic clothing. Hanson has spent decades opposing immigration from Asia and criticizing Australia’s multicultural policies, positions that helped launch her political career in the 1990s.

Her One Nation party currently has four seats in the Senate, after gaining two in May’s national elections, reflecting a rise in anti-immigration sentiment, according to Reuters.

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One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson wears a burqa in the Senate Chamber of Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, November 24, 2025. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via Reuters.)

After the uproar, Hanson released a statement about her verified Facebook page. She wrote: “Today I wore a burqa in the Senate after One Nation’s bill to ban the burqa and face coverings in public was not even introduced. The usual hypocrites panicked. The fact is that more than twenty countries around the world have banned the burqa because they recognize it as a tool that oppresses women, endangers national security, encourages radical Islam and threatens social cohesion. If these hypocrites don’t want me to wear a burqa, burqa, they can always support my ban.”

Her statement continued: “So if Parliament does not want to ban it, I will put this oppressive, radical, non-religious headdress that endangers our national security and mistreatment of women on display on the floor of our Parliament so that every Australian knows what is at stake. If they don’t want me to wear it, then ban the burqa.”

France and 21 other countries, including Tunisia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Portugal, have already introduced burqa bans.

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Senator Pauline Hanson removes a burqa she wore during Question Time in the Senate Chamber of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Thursday, August 17, 2017. Hanson repeated her protest for the second time on Monday, November 24, 2025. (Jed Cooper/Australian Broadcasting Corp. via AP)

Hanson left parliament after losing her seat in 1998 and resigned as leader of One Nation in 2002. She was jailed in 2003 on charges of election fraud, although the conviction was later overturned.

In 2010, she dropped plans to move to Britain because it was “overrun by immigrants and refugees”. She returned to lead One Nation in 2014 and won election to the Senate in 2016. She used her maiden speech to warn that “Australia was in danger of being overrun by Muslims.”

Reuters contributed to this report.