When Parliament resumes in Canberra this year, newly-elected Federal MPs Linda Burney and Anne Aly will walk into the Lower House representing two significant firsts.

Member for Barton Linda Burney will be the first Indigenous woman sitting in the House of Reps.

And Dr Anne Aly, professor at Edith Cowan University in WA and expert in counter-terrorism, will be walking through the doors as the member for Cowan and the first Muslim woman in Parliament.

Both women have won Labor seats this election that were previously held by Liberal MPs. And both have now joined Hack host Tom Tilley in the studio for their Let’s Talk™ appointments.

Here’s what we learned about Anne Aly at the beginning of her career in Federal politics.

She didn’t expect to become a politician

On ABC's Q&A last year, Dr Anne Aly said that part of a politician’s job was learning how to “lie”.

Anne Aly told Hack that she hopes to prove her own criticism wrong.

“Well I’m hoping that I’m not going to be one of those politicians,” Dr Aly said.

“If you had said to me back then that I was going to have a career in politics I would have said ‘no way, not touching it with a ten foot pole’. But it did get to a situation in the work that I do where it got to the point where I just thought, 'I need to make change from the inside, something needs to change.'

“And what needs to change is political will. And the offer came up to run for this seat, it was a marginal seat, and I thought, 'maybe this is a sign? Maybe I can make change from the inside'.”

Supports taking away passports from people intending to fight overseas

Anne Aly has previously criticised the Government’s plan to take passports away from Australians intending to fight overseas, saying local intervention after-the-fact would be needed.

“I never thought it was a bad idea, I think it’s a good thing to take away the passports,” Anne Aly said on Hack.

“What my criticism of that is, that if you take away the passports, all very well and good but let’s have something in place for those that are left here. Because they can’t travel and those who have a pathway to violence, and ensuring that that pathway to violence isn’t then turned to violence within Australia. And indeed that’s what we’ve seen, if you look at the arrests over the past couple years of young people who are planning terrorist attacks.

"And most of them, if not all of them have had their passports taken away. So it's all very well and good to have their passports taken away, yes we can absolutely support that, but let’s look at where there are gaps, and the gaps that that creates. And develop interventions and programs to fill those gaps.”

She expects to face off with Pauline Hanson

Is Anne Aly excited about the prospect of sharing the corridors of power with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who has called for a royal commission into Islam?

“I don’t know about ‘excited’ about it, I don’t know about 'excited', Tom,” Anne Aly said.

But does Anne Aly expect to face off with Pauline Hanson in Parliament?

“I’m sure we will. I’m actually looking forward to it, because you know, if enough Australians have voted for One Nation to be in the Senate, then it certainly means that people want this discussed.

“So let’s have the discussion, let’s have a robust discussion, let’s ensure that discussion is respectful, that it’s based on fact, that it’s informed.

Anne Aly also didn’t accept Pauline Hanson’s claims that Halal Certification is used to fund terrorism.

“ASIO certainly doesn’t think so. They’ve done a report, they’ve done an investigation, and they’ve said no. Unless [Pauline Hanson] knows something that ASIO doesn’t, absolutely not.”

She thinks we need a more informed debate on wearing the burqa in Parliament

“These debates periodically raise their heads. And I’m constantly left quite flabbergasted at how it is, in this day and age, still continue to talk about what women wear.

"Surely, as a progressive nation, we’ve accepted that what a woman wears is her choice. Is her right to wear.

"I think that discussion needs to be had among Muslim women about what these forms of clothing actually represent, and what they actually mean to Muslim women.”

Listen to Hack’s full chat with Dr Anne Aly below.