The leader of the far-right Australian One Nation party who was branded “racist” after she wore a burqa to the Senate is Pauline Hanson.
Hanson has performed this “stunt” twice, once in August 2017 and again in November 2025, as part of her long-running campaign to ban full-face Islamic coverings in public.
On November 24, 2025, Hanson repeated the action. She attempted to introduce a bill to ban the burqa and other full-face coverings, and when it was blocked, she re-entered the chamber in a burqa to protest.
The Senate erupted in anger, and proceedings were suspended after she refused to remove the garment when ordered to do so by Senate President Sue Lines.
Muslim senators and others again slammed the move as “blatant racism” and Islamophobic.
Earlier, on August 17, 2017, Hanson entered the Senate chamber wearing a full black burqa. She sat for several minutes before dramatically removing the garment during Question Time.
She then asked the Attorney-General, George Brandis, if the government would “work to ban the burqa” in the interest of national security.
Brandis delivered a widely praised condemnation, calling the act “an appalling thing to do” and telling her to be “very, very careful of the offence you may be about to give to the religious sensibilities of other Australians.”
Other senators, including those from the Labor and Greens parties, gave Brandis a standing ovation and condemned Hanson’s actions as a “stunt” and “disrespectful.”
Hanson has consistently defended her actions, arguing that the burqa is an “oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb” and a security risk, and that her stunts are a protest against the Parliament’s refusal to ban it.
