Australian senator suspended from Parliament for wearing burka in protest

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson wearing a burqa in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)

An Australian senator who is campaigning for a national burka ban has been barred from Parliament for the rest of the year for wearing the Muslim garment in the chamber.

Pauline Hanson, 71, the leader of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigration One Nation minor party, was accused of performing a disrespectful stunt on Monday when she walked into the Senate shrouded in the head-to-ankle garment to protest against fellow senators’ refusal to consider her Bill that would ban the burka and other full-face coverings in public places.