Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the
Speaker 1: Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the twenty sixth of November. I'm
Speaker 1: Billy fitz Simon's.
Speaker 2: I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 1: Well, it is the last sitting week for Parliament of
Speaker 1: the year, and it's safe to say it's a more
Speaker 1: dramatic ending than many predicted earlier. This week One Nation
Speaker 1: Senator Pauline Hanson walked into the Upper House wearing a
Speaker 1: black burker. If that sounds familiar, it's because yes, it
Speaker 1: has happened before, eight years ago. So what led to
Speaker 1: this moment that has caused headlines around the world. We'll
Speaker 1: tell you what you need to know in today's podcast.
Speaker 2: Okay, Billy, as you mentioned, the last sitting week for
Speaker 2: the year, and it wouldn't be Parliament if we didn't
Speaker 2: get some thing unexpected, which has certainly happened in the
Speaker 2: form of Pauline Hansen. But I think we should probably
Speaker 2: start with a bit of background on this politician, a
Speaker 2: very long serving one, who is Pauline Hanson.
Speaker 1: Billy, Yeah, So for anyone who's not familiar with Pauline Hanson,
Speaker 1: she is the founder and leader of the One Nation Party,
Speaker 1: which is a right wing party in Australia. She is
Speaker 1: a Queensland Senator and she has been a Queensland Senator
Speaker 1: since twenty sixteen. Before that, she was actually elected to
Speaker 1: the House of Reps in nineteen ninety six as an independent,
Speaker 1: but then lost that seat two years later. And I
Speaker 1: think that's just important context to set the scene that
Speaker 1: she has been around politics for a long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And even though she lost her seat in the
Speaker 2: House of Reps in nineteen ninety eight, Pauline Hanson is
Speaker 2: really a mainstay of Australian politics, even in the middle
Speaker 2: years when she wasn't in parliament. She unsuccessfully ran for
Speaker 2: a Queensland Senate seat in two thousand and one. Two
Speaker 2: years later she stood for a new South Wales Upper
Speaker 2: House seat but lost. Then she was convicted of electoral fraud.
Speaker 2: She went to prison for that before coming back in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen as the leader of One Nation. So she
Speaker 2: has really been around for a long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think throughout all of that, Pauline Hanson
Speaker 1: became known particularly for her anti immigration stance. You might
Speaker 1: know this phrase that she said during her maiden speech
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety six, she said I believe we are
Speaker 1: in danger of being swamped by Asians. Now that part
Speaker 1: of her speech is now infamous. It is often brought
Speaker 1: up when people are talking about Pauline Hanson and her
Speaker 1: anti immigration stance, and I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that she has continued to share opinions like that that
Speaker 1: have been quite divisive in Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she has certainly carved out of place as a
Speaker 2: very divisive figure in Australian politics, although increasingly popular with
Speaker 2: voters in Queensland, it has to be said. And we
Speaker 2: heard those anti immigration sentiments from her early in her
Speaker 2: career about Asian Australians. But I suppose in more recent
Speaker 2: years her focus, if you like, has turned towards Muslim
Speaker 2: immigration people of Islamic faith. And we are talking about
Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson today because she did this stunt in Parliament
Speaker 2: on Monday. She walked into the Senate wearing a burker.
Speaker 2: She is not a Muslim woman. So Billy, can you
Speaker 2: give us some context about what led to that moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this all happened on Monday afternoon, and like
Speaker 1: we said, it is the last sitting week of Canberra
Speaker 1: this week in terms of how it all unfolded. So
Speaker 1: Hanson tried to introduce a bill to the Senate on
Speaker 1: Monday that would have banned full face coverings, including burker's,
Speaker 1: in Australia. Now, the government did not allow for that
Speaker 1: bill to be introduced a little bit of context here. Essentially,
Speaker 1: the first step to anything becoming law in Australia is
Speaker 1: for a bill, which is the proposed legislation to be introduced,
Speaker 1: to be tabled, and then it gets debated by the parliamentarians.
Speaker 1: But the government in this case stopped it from even
Speaker 1: being introduced and therefore stopped any debate on that. Before
Speaker 1: I tell you what happens next, I thought I should
Speaker 1: explain why Hanson said that she wanted to introduce that bill.
Speaker 1: So she told reporters on Monday, it is a national
Speaker 1: security issue. This is a direct quote. It is a
Speaker 1: national security issue. It is about women's rights and a
Speaker 1: lot of women are forced to wear.
Speaker 2: This, implying that Muslim women who wear burkers are forced
Speaker 2: to do so.
Speaker 1: Exactly Now, journalists have repeatedly asked Hanson, both prior to
Speaker 1: this stunt and after, to share the evidence of the
Speaker 1: link between national security threats and women wearing burkers, which
Speaker 1: she's never really quite answered that question. What she did
Speaker 1: say on Monday was again, this is a direct quote.
Speaker 1: This does not belong in Australia, and at least give
Speaker 1: me the opportunity to debate it, and let's have the
Speaker 1: debate on the floor of Parliament because I do represent
Speaker 1: a large proportion of Australians out there who want to
Speaker 1: see the burker band.
Speaker 2: And just quickly, I think it's worth pointing out here, Billy,
Speaker 2: that when we're talking about a burker, there might be
Speaker 2: some confusion of what that is. But this is a
Speaker 2: full body covering that conceals the face of the wearer,
Speaker 2: so there's often a mesh screen for vision. Then we
Speaker 2: also have something like a h jub, which is a
Speaker 2: headscarf that covers the head and the neck but not
Speaker 2: the face.
Speaker 1: Yes, and in this specific bill that Pauline Hanson was proposing,
Speaker 1: it was the burker and full face coverings that she
Speaker 1: was proposing to be banned, not the hijub.
Speaker 2: Okay, Billy, I want to get into the moment that
Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson arrived in the Senate wearing this burker. But
Speaker 2: first a quick message from today's sponsor before we get
Speaker 2: on with today's deep dive. Billy Pauline Hanson wanted to
Speaker 2: table this bill. The Government blocked that, shutting down any debate.
Speaker 1: Then what happened, So the Government denied the bill being introduced,
Speaker 1: and then Hanson walked into the Senate in a burker
Speaker 1: and that is the moment that you're probably seen all
Speaker 1: over your social media feeds in terms of her reasoning
Speaker 1: for taking that step of wearing the burker in the
Speaker 1: Senate again, Hanson said in a statement after so if
Speaker 1: the Parliament won't ban it, I will display the oppressive,
Speaker 1: radical non religious head garb that risk our national security
Speaker 1: and the ill treatment of women on the floor of
Speaker 1: our Parliament so that every Australian knows what's at stake.
Speaker 2: And what was the response within the Senate? How did
Speaker 2: different parliamentarians react to this?
Speaker 1: I think what was interesting is basically all sides of Parliament,
Speaker 1: or at least parliamentary from all sides of Parliament condemned
Speaker 1: this act. I'll play you a little bit of the
Speaker 1: moment that she walked in because it was quite instant.
Speaker 1: The condemnation.
Speaker 3: Yes, wow, wow, senator.
Speaker 1: Senator thought right after that happened, we heard from a
Speaker 1: range of fellow senators. I'll play a little bit from
Speaker 1: a few of them because I think it does give
Speaker 1: context of how widespread the criticism was. So we heard
Speaker 1: from Independent Senator Fatima Payman, who is Muslim. She is
Speaker 1: disrespecting the Muslims out there, Muslim Australians. It's absolutely unconstitutional.
Speaker 1: We heard from Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.
Speaker 4: Whatever our own beliefs may be, the sort of disrespect
Speaker 4: that you are engaging in now is not worthy of
Speaker 4: a member of the Australian Senate and it should not
Speaker 4: be allowed to stay.
Speaker 1: And Coalition Senator ann rustin.
Speaker 4: All of us in this place probably need to remember
Speaker 4: that the respect of this chamber is incumbent on every
Speaker 4: single one of us.
Speaker 1: I also thought it was worth noting that National Senator
Speaker 1: Matt Canavan, who is also known for right wing opinions
Speaker 1: kind of like Hanson, he also criticized the move on
Speaker 1: Sky News. He said the stunt was disrespectful and that
Speaker 1: Hansen was more focused on getting a headline than an outcome.
Speaker 1: One politician who defended Hansen was Barnaby Joyce, who is
Speaker 1: currently part of the Nationals, and there has been a
Speaker 1: lot of speculation that he potentially wants to join Pauline
Speaker 1: Hanson's One Nation.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: He told ABC News quote, people are allowed to make
Speaker 1: any political statement they wish, as long as it's not violent.
Speaker 2: A very interesting comment from Barnaby Joyce Billy, because as
Speaker 2: you mentioned, he has declared that he won't be running
Speaker 2: again for the Nationals at the next election, but the
Speaker 2: rumors are that we're going to hear an announcement from
Speaker 2: him this week about where his political future will lie.
Speaker 2: Back to Pauline Hanson, though I know that the disruption
Speaker 2: caused by her wearing the burker in the Senate actually
Speaker 2: caused a suspension in the moment what happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is quite rare for the Senate to be
Speaker 1: suspended because of a senator's behavior. So initially when it
Speaker 1: first happened, the Deputy President of the Senate, who was
Speaker 1: presiding over proceedings, he said that dress is a matter
Speaker 1: for individual senators.
Speaker 4: This matter has been considered before.
Speaker 3: Dress is a matter for individual senator's conscience.
Speaker 1: But then Penny Wong, who I mentioned before, she's the
Speaker 1: Foreign Affairs Minister and she's also the leader of the
Speaker 1: Government in the Senate. She moved a motion for Hanson
Speaker 1: to be temporarily suspended from the Senate on Monday afternoon
Speaker 1: until she removed the burker. Now that was passed by
Speaker 1: a majority of senators, but that then didn't happen. Hanson
Speaker 1: refuse to remove the burker, and it was then decided
Speaker 1: that the Senate itself would be suspended, which occurred for
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half before they all then
Speaker 1: returned at about six pm on Monday, and Hanson did
Speaker 1: return without the burker. And that is a recap of
Speaker 1: what happened on Monday in the Senate in Australia. A
Speaker 1: very dramatic day.
Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, So we have Pauline Hansen trying to table
Speaker 2: this bill. She is blocked. She rocks up in the
Speaker 2: Senate wearing a burker. Parliamentarians from all sides of politics
Speaker 2: are saying, you cannot do that, you cannot behave this way,
Speaker 2: you need to take that off. There's a motion passed
Speaker 2: saying that the Senate cannot resume until Pauline Hanson removes
Speaker 2: the burker. She refuses to Senate suspended. Then things resume
Speaker 2: by Monday evening, but things continued to develop into Tuesday.
Speaker 2: What happened yesterday?
Speaker 1: Okay, so on Tuesday, Hansen was suspended from the Senate
Speaker 1: highly for seven sitting days. That came after Penny Wang
Speaker 1: moved a motion for that to happen and it was passed.
Speaker 1: And I mentioned before that this is the last sitting
Speaker 1: week of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask how that works. Does
Speaker 2: the seven kind of not really have to get served?
Speaker 1: No, so it will carry over into next year. So
Speaker 1: she will there are a few remaining days this week
Speaker 1: and then it will have to carry over into next year.
Speaker 1: After Hanson's suspension was carried down, Hansen did say a
Speaker 1: few words where she doubled down on the stunt. Here's
Speaker 1: a little bit of what she said.
Speaker 3: I am pleased now to be given the opportunity to
Speaker 3: explain myself. I was denied the right by the Senate
Speaker 3: to move my bill, to actually debate it on the
Speaker 3: floor of Parliament. You denied me and the people of
Speaker 3: Australia to have that voice. You chose to shut it down.
Speaker 3: This is not the first you've done it to me.
Speaker 1: After that, she was suspended and that was that.
Speaker 2: Wow, So no more Pauline Hanson in the Senate at
Speaker 2: least for the rest of this year and early into
Speaker 2: next year. But I think we should touch on before
Speaker 2: we wrap up today, Billy, the fact that this is
Speaker 2: not the first time Pauline Hanson has done this. It
Speaker 2: was the better part of a decade ago. Her politics
Speaker 2: haven't really shifted that much, I suppose. Can you tell
Speaker 2: us about what happened the first time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite crazy how similar the two instances are.
Speaker 1: So it was back in twenty seventeen when Pauline Hanson
Speaker 1: walked into the Senate wearing a black burker. It was
Speaker 1: largely for the same reason. She wanted to make a
Speaker 1: ban on full face coverings in Australia, and she wore
Speaker 1: the burker, she said, to demonstrate that point. It caused
Speaker 1: a lot of controversy back then. In the years since
Speaker 1: that happened, I think that it is mentioned a lot
Speaker 1: when Pauline Hanson is talked about in the media and
Speaker 1: when her anti immigration stance is talked about specifically, just
Speaker 1: like it has cause a lot of controversy this time,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it's something that will be brought up
Speaker 1: for years to come.
Speaker 2: Wow, a bit of deja vous there, but a fascinating
Speaker 2: update in the Pauline Hanson story. Billy, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for explaining that to us. Thank you, and thank
Speaker 2: you for listening to today's episode. That's all we've got
Speaker 2: time for today, but we will be back a little
Speaker 2: later on with your evening news headlines. Until then, have
Speaker 2: a great day.
Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Dunda
Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations.
Speaker 4: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 4: both past and present.