Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis found himself backed in a corner when I wore the burqa into the Senate chamber. Why were you so upset when I wore the burqa into the Senate? Instead of dealing with the issues raised by the burqa, you sidestepped them and declared the burqa as a religious requirement. The Australian National Imams Council, in their press release issued later that day, said it was not a religious requirement to wear the burqa. Senator Brandis, the burqa is not a religious requirement, but it is a shorthand for radical Islam through its oppression of women and association with communities which desire our law to be replaced by sharia law. Many women are silently suffering by being forced to wear the burqa. The burqa condemns many women to be perpetual minors, obedient to their male guardians. It is these women and their children who are most at risk of genital mutilation. Other women wear the burqa as a political statement, a form of defiance against a country which has given them freedom from the oppression experienced in other countries. The court of public opinion has judged you and found you wanting because you defended the most powerful symbol of radical Islam here in the heart of Australia's democracy. Senator Brandis, how can Australians believe the government is serious when it says—