PAULINE Hanson has been considering her Senate burqa stunt for months and says it was aimed at ‘social cohesion’.

In an interview on Sky News’ Paul Murray Live tonight Senator Hanson revealed she bought the religious garment that she wore during Question Time online.

Senator Hanson took her seat today while wearing the full-face black garment, before taking it off.

The One Nation leader Hanson fired back at claims she was mocking the Islamic faith.

“It was in the making months ago,” she told the program.



media_camera Senator Hanson caused a stir in the Senate with her decision to wear a burqa. Picture: Gary Ramage

“I thought it needs to be done. It needs to be done to press a point and today was the day to actually do it. I had one of my staff by in on eBay. It was one size fits all. I had trouble getting into it.

“Of course there was (nerves). This was a big decision I don’t have to make headlines. I don’t need to do it.”

Senator Hanson said she was attempting to make a point about national security.

“What I am putting across is national security,” she said.

“Most Australians don’t want the burqa. We have to be logical about it and listen to the Australian people.

“It stops social cohesion and we have to address it.”

“I want people to take out of this that I am an Australian who has not lost my voice due to political correctness and minoroty groups

“I am going to be true to myself and the people that elected me. I am sick and tired of these gutless pollies behind the scnees that agree with me. I will walk away and say I have done the best on my principles.

media_camera Senator Pauline Hanson was defiant as she sat in the chamber making her point. Picture: Gary Ramage

Earlier after carrying out her stunt, Senator Hanson told 2GB radio her One Nation colleague Brian Burston identified her to the senate security guards but said none of the guards checked to confirm her identity before she walked in.

“I put it on in my office, the media were taking photos, I walked straight down the hallway, down the stairs. I met two security guards and I walked straight up the chamber.

“No one, no security guard at any point of time asked to see my face.

Hanson: 'I am sick and tired of these gutless politicians' Hanson: 'I am sick and tired of these gutless politicians'

“When I walked into the chamber one of the attendants ... he just gasped.”

Senator Hanson described the experience of wearing the burqa as “horrible”.

She said the idea for the stunt was her own and was designed to expose the security threats to Parliament and to call for the ban.

“It’s been an idea of mine to actually expose the burqa,” she said.

“I’m very much against the burqa. I think it’s confronting. I think it’s un-Australian.

“This has been thought about for months now.”

media_camera Attoney-General George Brandis reacts after criticising One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson. Picture: AAP

Wearing the burqa was “uncomfortable”, she said.

“It’s hard to describe - I feel for these women who are actually forced to wear it because the pressure is put on them by their husbands and their fathers,” she said.

“It’s not a religious requirement, let’s get that clear.”

Her provocative move comes ahead of her call to ban the garment in Australia.

The One Nation leader made a speech to the Parliament about the ban, which she has called for in the past. Her bid to ban the burqa was rejected by all Labor, Greens, and Coalition senators.

While in the chamber, Senator Hanson asked why someone should be allowed to take their place in the Senate while obscuring their face and argued it should be banned from parliament.

She eventually removed the garment before asking her question and said: “I’m quite happy to remove this, because this is not what should belong in this Parliament”.

She left the chamber to jeers from Labor senators at around 2.30pm before issuing a statement.

Senator Hanson said she made the decision to attend Question Time in a full face covering because she believed “the need to ban full face coverings in public was an important issue facing modern Australia that needed to be discussed”.

Watch Senator Brandis’ stinging attack on Senator Hanson below.

George Brandis smacks down Pauline Hanson George Brandis smacks down Pauline Hanson

media_camera Senator Pauline Hanson’s stunt was not well received by other senators. Picture: Gary Ramage

Senator Hanson said she wished to raise the issue of full face covering presenting a security threat not only to Parliament House, but also to the greater Australian public.

She said she believed that full face covering, such as the burqa, were “oppressive, presented barriers to assimilation, disadvantaged women from finding employment, were causing issues inside our justice system, presented a clear security threat and had no place in modern Western society”.

Labor senators called “shame” and “you’re a disgrace” as Senator Hanson rose to ask if the Government would work towards implementing the ban.

Attorney-General George Brandis received a standing ovation from the Labor senators when he said her actions were “appalling” and “disgraceful” and that her stunt was ridiculing and mocking the Muslim community.

“Senator Hanson, no, we will not be banning the burqa,” Brandis said.

“I am not going to pretend to ignore the stunt that you have tried to pull today by arriving in the Chamber dressed in a burqa when we all know that you are not an adherent of the Islamic faith.

“I would caution and counsel you with respect to be very, very careful of the offence you may do to the religious sensibilities of other Australians.”

“We have about 500,000 Australians in this country of the Islamic faith and the vast majority of them are law abiding good Australians.

media_camera Senator Hanson faced attacks from Senator George Brandis. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Senator Hanson, for the last four years, I have had responsibility pre-eminently among the ministers subject to the Prime Minister for national security policy.

“And I can tell you, Senator Hanson, that it has been the advice of each Director-General of security with whom I have worked and each Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police with whom I have worked that it is vital for their intelligence and law enforcement work that they work cooperatively with the Muslim community and to ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do and I would ask you to reflect on that.”

media_camera One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson begins taking off a burqa during Senate Question Time. Picture: AAP

In defence of her act, Senator Hanson also told 2GB radio: “Don’t the Australian people have the right to know that whoever sits in the chamber, that is actually the person they voted for,” she said.

“How do I know, that if you have someone ... in a burqa in that chamber it is that person who walks in that chamber every time?”

“These are questions that need to be asked.

“To blatantly come out, as Senator Brandis did with a definite no, ‘we’re not going to ban the burqa, we’re not going to have equality as far as anyone wearing full faced coverings into a bank or into the chamber, a blatant ‘No’ straight off without saying ‘Let’s discuss this’ ... it was just a definite ‘No’.

Senator Hanson hit back at the suggestions she was mocking the Islamic faith.

“That’s absolute rubbish - I’m not mocking anyone,” she said.

“People have a right to their own faith and what they believe in, I’ve got no problems with that.

media_camera Senator Hanson still removing a burqa during Senate Question Time. Picture: AAP

“But when that faith stops at a religion and then becomes a political ideology, that’s what I have problems with.

“The burqa is not a religious requirement. It is a matter of controlling women.”

“Is it extreme? Yes. Is this getting my message across? I hope so.”

“I hope it’s creating debate. Because we have overall probably more than 55 per cent of Australians want to see the burqa banned. And I think there’s no better place to start than with the Parliament.”

media_camera The One Nation leader took her time in removing the burqa during Senate Question Time. Picture: AAP

Senator Hanson said while she was walking to the chamber in the burqa, a Greens senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, shook her hand.

She described it as “tokenism”.

Hanson also condemned the standing ovation from the Greens and Labor senators to Senator Brandis’s response.

“It’s basically saying this is the future, we’re not going to stop the spreading of Islam, we’re not going to stop this division happening in our society.”

media_camera Senator Hanson reveals her face as she takes off a burqa during Question Time. Picture: AAP

Senate President Stephen Parry made no comment on the stunt beyond that the chamber had a rule that people with face coverings had to identify themselves before entering.

Senator Hanson has previously vowed to ban the garb in all official buildings in Queensland if her party wins the upcoming state election, but she has also called for the ban to be implemented nationally.

She has previously called the burqa an “evil tool of oppression” and “an extreme national security risk”.

media_camera Senator Pauline Hanson makes her speech to Parliament about banning the burqa. Picture: Supplied

HANSON STUNT AN EYE-ROLL MOMENT

Counter-terrorism expert and Labor MP Anne Aly, who was the first Muslim woman to be elected to federal parliament, said Senator Hanson’s stunt would be “just another eye-roll moment” for most Muslim Australians.

“I think most young muslims and I think most muslims in general know Pauline Hanson, they know what her agenda is,” Dr Aly told News Corp.

“This is probably just another eye-roll moment, although one that has reached a new level of low, and quite disgraceful to carry out such a stunt in our Parliament.

“Most Australians are already disaffected with politics and with politicians.

“This is not the way to increase that trust between individuals and groups in our society and the political institutions and the politicians that represent them.”

Dr Aly said while she personally did not agree with the call to ban the burqa, the discussion could be had respectfully.

Anne Aly weighs in on Hanson burqa stunt Anne Aly weighs in on Hanson burqa stunt

“If people want to have a conversation about it, have a conversation about it respectfully,” she said.

“You do not need to wear a burqa in the senate and absolutely make a mockery of the parliament and a mockery of the office that you’re elected into by the Australian people to make that point.”

Dr Aly said a handful of women wearing a burqa in Australian society did not add to the risk of terrorism.

“If that literature exists, if that research exists, if that empirical evidence exists, I’d like to see it - but I haven’t seen it anywhere,” she said.

“It’s an argument designed to make her real agenda a little bit more palatable.

“That is to ban Muslims from Australia ... basically to disenfranchise and isolate and create division between all Australians and Muslim Australians. Most Australians, who are decent people who treasure our social harmony, who treasure our multicultural society, wouldn’t stand for that.”

HANSON AND DICK SMITH UNITE

The incredible stunt comes after Senator Hanson met with prominent Australian businessman Dick Smith to discuss immigration policy in Canberra today.

media_camera One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson is facing attacks in the Senate. Picture: AAP

The One Nation leader tweeted a film clip of her meeting with Mr Smith, who recently launched a ‘grim reaper’ anti-immigration ad campaign, to argue Australia’s annual intake should be capped at 70, 000.

“Every Australian family doesn’t have 20 kids. They have the number of kids they can give a good life too. I want our politicians to have a similar plan for the nation,” Mr Smith said in the video.

media_camera Senators from both sides join in applauding Attorney-General George Brandis for criticising One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson for wearing a burqa. Picture: AAP

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ONE NATION WARNING

Senator Hanson’s stunt comes two days after the Trump administration named Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party among threats to religious freedom in Australia.

The annual report on threats to religious freedom internationally, released by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, highlighted the party’s calls for “ceasing Muslim immigration, holding a royal commission on Islam, halting construction of mosques, installing surveillance cameras in mosques, banning wearing of the burqa and niqab in public places, and prohibiting members of parliament from being sworn in under the Quran”.

The report also noted that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull disagreed with the party’s position.

media_camera One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson shocked senators with her decision to wear a burqa. Picture: AAP

MPS REACT TO HANSON’S STUNT AND BRANDIS’ ATTACK

MPs from boths houses of Federal Parliament took to social media to condemn Senator Hanson for her stunt and praise Senator Brandis for his remarks.

Greens Leader Richard Di Natale also labelled her actions “disgraceful” and argument for a multicultural code of conduct for the parliament to prevent future stunts.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said the “bigotry and divisiveness” Senator Hanson displayed “has no place in our society”.

“It certainly has no place in our parliament,” she said.

“Today our parliament showed leadership when it was needed.

“It is one thing to wear religious dress as an act of faith. It is another to wear it as a stunt. That can only give offence and divide.

“Nobody needs to defend Senator Hanson’s right to speak. The people that need defending are the people she attacks.”

Senator Wong said leaders have an obligation to stand up for the people in Australia, and said Senator Brandis and the Parliament had done so.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who is fond of a stunt himself, told 2GB Senator Hanson had crossed a line.

Hanson’s stunt beneath contempt. Response from Brandis is spot on. Now let’s give her the attention she deserves – absolutely none. — Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) August 17, 2017

Pauline Hanson’s divisive stunt has no place in our parliament. Thank you George Brandis for your fine words today. #SenateQT pic.twitter.com/V2ebMwwBzF — Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) August 17, 2017

Very proud to be a friend and colleague of George Brandis - a fine, appropriate and necessary statement. — Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) August 17, 2017

Credit where credit is due - a fine and necessary response from Senator Brandis, restoring dignity to the Senate. https://t.co/54prQyKJTk — Mark Dreyfus (@markdreyfusQCMP) August 17, 2017

When you stop paying attention to desperate stunts, the stunts disappear. Simple #auspol #qt — Ed Husic (@edhusicMP) August 17, 2017

George gave a great speech in the end. He deserves to be congrstulated — Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) August 17, 2017

It’s not often I agree with George Brandis. The Greens stand with him in condemning Senator Hanson’s appalling actions in Question Time. — Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) August 17, 2017

True leadership shown by Senator Brandis today. The spontaneous response from Senate shows Aust is still better than the hate others fan — Sarah Hanson-Young𗁤 (@sarahinthesen8) August 17, 2017