Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the twenty sixth of November. I'm Billy fitz Simon's.
I'm Emma Gillespie.
Well, it is the last sitting week for Parliament of the year, and it's safe to say it's a more dramatic ending than many predicted earlier. This week One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson walked into the Upper House wearing a black burker. If that sounds familiar, it's because yes, it has happened before, eight years ago. So what led to this moment that has caused headlines around the world. We'll tell you what you need to know in today's podcast.
Okay, Billy, as you mentioned, the last sitting week for the year, and it wouldn't be Parliament if we didn't get some thing unexpected, which has certainly happened in the form of Pauline Hansen. But I think we should probably start with a bit of background on this politician, a very long serving one, who is Pauline Hanson.
Billy, Yeah, So for anyone who's not familiar with Pauline Hanson, she is the founder and leader of the One Nation Party, which is a right wing party in Australia. She is a Queensland Senator and she has been a Queensland Senator since twenty sixteen. Before that, she was actually elected to the House of Reps in nineteen ninety six as an independent,
but then lost that seat two years later. And I think that's just important context to set the scene that she has been around politics for a long time.
Yeah, And even though she lost her seat in the House of Reps in nineteen ninety eight, Pauline Hanson is really a mainstay of Australian politics, even in the middle years when she wasn't in parliament. She unsuccessfully ran for a Queensland Senate seat in two thousand and one. Two years later she stood for a new South Wales Upper House seat but lost. Then she was convicted of electoral fraud. She went to prison for that before coming back in
twenty fourteen as the leader of One Nation. So she has really been around for a long time.
Yeah, And I think throughout all of that, Pauline Hanson became known particularly for her anti immigration stance. You might know this phrase that she said during her maiden speech in nineteen ninety six, she said I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Now that part
of her speech is now infamous. It is often brought up when people are talking about Pauline Hanson and her anti immigration stance, and I think it's fair to say that she has continued to share opinions like that that have been quite divisive in Australia.
Yeah, she has certainly carved out of place as a very divisive figure in Australian politics, although increasingly popular with voters in Queensland, it has to be said. And we heard those anti immigration sentiments from her early in her career about Asian Australians. But I suppose in more recent years her focus, if you like, has turned towards Muslim immigration people of Islamic faith. And we are talking about Pauline Hanson today because she did this stunt in Parliament
on Monday. She walked into the Senate wearing a burker. She is not a Muslim woman. So Billy, can you give us some context about what led to that moment.
Yeah, so this all happened on Monday afternoon, and like we said, it is the last sitting week of Canberra this week in terms of how it all unfolded. So Hanson tried to introduce a bill to the Senate on Monday that would have banned full face coverings, including burker's, in Australia. Now, the government did not allow for that
bill to be introduced a little bit of context here. Essentially, the first step to anything becoming law in Australia is for a bill, which is the proposed legislation to be introduced, to be tabled, and then it gets debated by the parliamentarians. But the government in this case stopped it from even being introduced and therefore stopped any debate on that. Before I tell you what happens next, I thought I should explain why Hanson said that she wanted to introduce that bill.
So she told reporters on Monday, it is a national security issue. This is a direct quote. It is a national security issue. It is about women's rights and a lot of women are forced to wear.
This, implying that Muslim women who wear burkers are forced to do so.
Exactly Now, journalists have repeatedly asked Hanson, both prior to this stunt and after, to share the evidence of the link between national security threats and women wearing burkers, which she's never really quite answered that question. What she did say on Monday was again, this is a direct quote.
This does not belong in Australia, and at least give me the opportunity to debate it, and let's have the debate on the floor of Parliament because I do represent a large proportion of Australians out there who want to see the burker band.
And just quickly, I think it's worth pointing out here, Billy, that when we're talking about a burker, there might be some confusion of what that is. But this is a full body covering that conceals the face of the wearer, so there's often a mesh screen for vision. Then we also have something like a h jub, which is a headscarf that covers the head and the neck but not the face.
Yes, and in this specific bill that Pauline Hanson was proposing, it was the burker and full face coverings that she was proposing to be banned, not the hijub.
Okay, Billy, I want to get into the moment that Pauline Hanson arrived in the Senate wearing this burker. But first a quick message from today's sponsor before we get on with today's deep dive. Billy Pauline Hanson wanted to table this bill. The Government blocked that, shutting down any debate.
Then what happened, So the Government denied the bill being introduced, and then Hanson walked into the Senate in a burker and that is the moment that you're probably seen all over your social media feeds in terms of her reasoning for taking that step of wearing the burker in the Senate again, Hanson said in a statement after so if the Parliament won't ban it, I will display the oppressive, radical non religious head garb that risk our national security
and the ill treatment of women on the floor of our Parliament so that every Australian knows what's at stake.
And what was the response within the Senate? How did different parliamentarians react to this?
I think what was interesting is basically all sides of Parliament, or at least parliamentary from all sides of Parliament condemned this act. I'll play you a little bit of the moment that she walked in because it was quite instant. The condemnation.
Yes, wow, wow, senator.
Senator thought right after that happened, we heard from a range of fellow senators. I'll play a little bit from a few of them because I think it does give context of how widespread the criticism was. So we heard from Independent Senator Fatima Payman, who is Muslim. She is disrespecting the Muslims out there, Muslim Australians. It's absolutely unconstitutional. We heard from Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.
Whatever our own beliefs may be, the sort of disrespect that you are engaging in now is not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate and it should not be allowed to stay.
And Coalition Senator ann rustin.
All of us in this place probably need to remember that the respect of this chamber is incumbent on every single one of us.
I also thought it was worth noting that National Senator Matt Canavan, who is also known for right wing opinions kind of like Hanson, he also criticized the move on Sky News. He said the stunt was disrespectful and that Hansen was more focused on getting a headline than an outcome. One politician who defended Hansen was Barnaby Joyce, who is currently part of the Nationals, and there has been a lot of speculation that he potentially wants to join Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
Yep.
He told ABC News quote, people are allowed to make any political statement they wish, as long as it's not violent.
A very interesting comment from Barnaby Joyce Billy, because as you mentioned, he has declared that he won't be running again for the Nationals at the next election, but the rumors are that we're going to hear an announcement from him this week about where his political future will lie. Back to Pauline Hanson, though I know that the disruption caused by her wearing the burker in the Senate actually caused a suspension in the moment what happened.
Yeah, which is quite rare for the Senate to be suspended because of a senator's behavior. So initially when it first happened, the Deputy President of the Senate, who was presiding over proceedings, he said that dress is a matter for individual senators.
This matter has been considered before.
Dress is a matter for individual senator's conscience.
But then Penny Wong, who I mentioned before, she's the Foreign Affairs Minister and she's also the leader of the Government in the Senate. She moved a motion for Hanson to be temporarily suspended from the Senate on Monday afternoon until she removed the burker. Now that was passed by
a majority of senators, but that then didn't happen. Hanson refuse to remove the burker, and it was then decided that the Senate itself would be suspended, which occurred for about an hour and a half before they all then returned at about six pm on Monday, and Hanson did return without the burker. And that is a recap of what happened on Monday in the Senate in Australia. A very dramatic day.
Wow. Okay, So we have Pauline Hansen trying to table this bill. She is blocked. She rocks up in the Senate wearing a burker. Parliamentarians from all sides of politics are saying, you cannot do that, you cannot behave this way, you need to take that off. There's a motion passed saying that the Senate cannot resume until Pauline Hanson removes the burker. She refuses to Senate suspended. Then things resume by Monday evening, but things continued to develop into Tuesday. What happened yesterday?
Okay, so on Tuesday, Hansen was suspended from the Senate highly for seven sitting days. That came after Penny Wang moved a motion for that to happen and it was passed. And I mentioned before that this is the last sitting week of the year.
Yeah, I was going to ask how that works. Does the seven kind of not really have to get served?
No, so it will carry over into next year. So she will there are a few remaining days this week and then it will have to carry over into next year. After Hanson's suspension was carried down, Hansen did say a few words where she doubled down on the stunt. Here's a little bit of what she said.
I am pleased now to be given the opportunity to explain myself. I was denied the right by the Senate to move my bill, to actually debate it on the floor of Parliament. You denied me and the people of Australia to have that voice. You chose to shut it down. This is not the first you've done it to me.
After that, she was suspended and that was that.
Wow, So no more Pauline Hanson in the Senate at least for the rest of this year and early into next year. But I think we should touch on before we wrap up today, Billy, the fact that this is not the first time Pauline Hanson has done this. It was the better part of a decade ago. Her politics haven't really shifted that much, I suppose. Can you tell us about what happened the first time.
Yeah, it's quite crazy how similar the two instances are. So it was back in twenty seventeen when Pauline Hanson walked into the Senate wearing a black burker. It was largely for the same reason. She wanted to make a ban on full face coverings in Australia, and she wore the burker, she said, to demonstrate that point. It caused
a lot of controversy back then. In the years since that happened, I think that it is mentioned a lot when Pauline Hanson is talked about in the media and when her anti immigration stance is talked about specifically, just like it has cause a lot of controversy this time, and I'm sure it's something that will be brought up for years to come.
Wow, a bit of deja vous there, but a fascinating update in the Pauline Hanson story. Billy, thank you so much for explaining that to us. Thank you, and thank you for listening to today's episode. That's all we've got time for today, but we will be back a little later on with your evening news headlines. Until then, have a great day.
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