Australian Senator Pauline Hanson, a conservative populist leader, was barred from Parliament for seven consecutive sitting days Tuesday after she wore a burqa in the Senate chamber to protest lawmakers’ refusal to consider her bill banning the burqa in public.
Hanson, the 71-year-old leader of the “Australia First”-like One Nation party, walked into the Senate Monday wearing the full-body Islamic garment after fellow senators blocked her legislation from being introduced for debate.
Left-leaning senators immediately suspended her for the remainder of Monday’s session, then passed a censure motion Tuesday, carrying what lawmakers called one of the harshest penalties against a senator in recent decades.
The Senate suspension will continue when Parliament resumes in February 2026. The Senate adjourns for the year Thursday.
Hanson refused to apologize when called upon Tuesday.
“The senators that are elected by the Australian people, you dare question me over my respect for this place, the senators in this place have no respect for the Australian people,” she said.
Hanson later told reporters she would be judged by voters at the next election in 2028, not by her Senate colleagues.
“They didn’t want to ban the burqa, yet they denied me the right to wear it on the floor of Parliament. There is no dress code on the floor of Parliament, yet I’m not allowed to wear it. So to me, it’s been hypocritical,” she said.
The senator from Queensland also defended her actions on social media Monday.
“Today I wore a burqa into the Senate after One Nation’s bill to ban the burqa and face coverings in public was blocked from even being introduced. The usual hypocrites had an absolute freak out. The fact is more than 20 countries around the world have banned the burqa because they recognize it as a tool that oppresses women, poses a national security risk, encourages radical Islam, and threatens social cohesion,” Hanson wrote on X.
“If they don’t want me wearing it — ban the burqa,” she said.
Labor Senate leader Wong called Hanson’s display “not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate” and moved to suspend her after she refused to comply with instructions to remove the covering Monday.
This is the second time Hanson has worn a burqa in Parliament. She previously donned the garment in 2017 in a similar protest calling for a nationwide ban. She was not punished on that occasion.
Hanson’s One Nation party has four seats in the Senate, having doubled its representation in the chamber in May’s general election. Recent opinion polls show support for Hanson and One Nation has further increased as nationalism and conservatism gain ground in Australian politics.
Hanson gave a speech at the annual U.S. Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida earlier this month.
Take a look at her clever protest —
Breaking: The Senate has been suspended after One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson entered the chamber wearing a burqa and refused to remove it despite objections from multiple senators and the President of the Senate.
Pauline Hanson remained defiant, refusing to comply with the… pic.twitter.com/sQvOsCCVaE
— Rukshan Fernando (@therealrukshan) November 24, 2025