Burka segregation in Parliament reversed by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop

Updated

A move to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate enclosed public gallery at Parliament House has been reversed.

Earlier this month, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new rules applying to anyone wearing "facial coverings".

But the move caused outcry and an intervention from Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is believed to have told Mrs Bishop that "common sense should prevail".

A Department of Parliamentary Services statement on security arrangements released this morning said it had replaced the earlier measures.

The new arrangements stipulate that all visitors entering Parliament will be required to "temporarily remove any coverings".

"That will enable security staff to identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk," DPS said in the statement.

"Once this process has taken place, visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place."

Senator Parry told a parliamentary committee this morning that he and Mrs Bishop made the initial decision because of concerns about a protest.

"I was advised that a group of people, some being male, were going to disrupt Question Time in the House of Representatives," he said.

"The advice further indicated that this group would be wearing garments that would prevent recognition of facial features and possibly their gender.

"As a result of this advice, coming to me via the Usher of the Black Rod and the Speaker's office, the Speaker and I agreed to put in place temporary measures to ensure that such an event in the public gallery would not be disruptive, particularly when the identity of any person causing disruption would be difficult to determine."

The protest did not eventuate.

Labor senators and Greens leader Christine Milne pressed Senator Parry about when and how the decision was made, but he did not reveal what advice it was based on.

"The best and the most immediate response was to enable us to ensure the identity of those people in the public gallery," he said.

"I think that was a prudent decision for that particular day.

"Let's bear in mind that was the last sitting day of the session, it was an interim measure, and it was going to impact on Parliament House for one day - and that's exactly what that decision in effect did."

Senator Parry said he did not think it was appropriate to reveal the background of what advice was received, but confirmed the Australian Federal Police and ASIO had no involvement in the decision.

"I don't particularly want to go into the details of any advice to the presiding officers [President and Speaker], but the advice was given and noted," he said.

Bishop won't reveal detail of 'security matters'

Labor's manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke pressed Mrs Bishop about the rulings at the end of Question Time, asking if she could confirm that she and the President "had not received advice from ASIO, the AFP, or the security office of the Department of Parliamentary Services, when you decided to segregate sections of the public galleries of the parliament?"

Mrs Bishop said she would not reveal the detail of "security matters".

"The President and I made a decision on advice that was given to us that there was an action planned that would have disrupted the business of the House," she said.

"We would have been derelict in our duty if we had not dealt with it."

And she denied receiving a request from the Prime Minister to reconsider the policy, telling Mr Burke the answer was "in a word - no".

Earlier, Mr Burke said the backdown was welcome but that the Speaker and President still needed to explain why this "farce" was initiated.

"What possessed them to think that segregation was a good idea?" he said.

"Segregation was previously introduced, apparently, with no security advice attached to it and no security reason attached to it."

When the ban was announced, Senator Parry described it as a "management measure".

Mr Burke said segregation should not be part of Australian life.

"I want children to learn about segregation when they're reading the courtroom scenes in To Kill A Mockingbird, not when they come on their excursion to Parliament House," he said.

Lambie says decision will boost extremists' morale

Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie, an outspoken opponent of facial coverings, said she was deeply disappointment with the reversal.

"The decision today to allow burkas and other forms of identity-concealing items of dress to be worn in Australia's Parliament will put a smile on the face of the overseas Islamic extremists and their supporters in Australia who view the burka or niqab as flags for extremism," she said in statement.

"To the Islamic extremists, today's decision will prove how weak and indecisive we have become as a nation and how our PM lacks the courage of his convictions when it comes to Australia's national security.

"This decision will not stop me from putting private members legislation before Parliament, which will make illegal the wearing of the burka and any other form of facial identity-concealing outfit or items of clothing in public."

Bernardi boots out photographers

Chair of the Senate Finance committee, Senator Cory Bernardi, who has called for burkas to be banned in public, removed several media photographers from the committee room as Senator Parry was being questioned.

"There's some concerns about the distractive [sic] nature of the photographers clicking away," Senator Bernardi said.

"And so the secretary [of the committee] is just making some appropriate arrangements.

"It's only fair for the witnesses to be able to give their evidence undistracted."

Labor senators protested that the media presence was not "unusual" in such committees and that the move would lead to a "lack of transparency".

Veteran Labor senator John Faulkner remarked that "perhaps we ask them to purchase quiet cameras".

Labor's Joe Ludwig said the move was "extraordinary" because "estimates are a public event".

Senator Penny Wong conceded the Government had the numbers on the committee and Labor members would be "rolled".

"What is it about democracy that you don't like?" Senator Bernardi asked.

Topics: federal-parliament, parliament, government-and-politics, islam, religion-and-beliefs, abbott-tony, australia

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