The Senate was suspended for more than one and a half hours after One Nation’s Pauline Hanson strode into the chamber wearing a burka, frustrating and then stalling debate in the final sitting week of the year.

Senator Hanson, who is calling for burkas and face coverings to be banned across the country, was subsequently slapped with a sanction preventing her from entering the chamber for the rest of the day….

“If the parliament won’t ban it, I will display this oppressive, radical, non-religious head garb that risks our national security and the ill treatment of women on the floor of our parliament so that every Australian knows what’s at stake,” she wrote….

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce — who has left the door open to joining Senator Hanson’s One Nation party — said people were allowed to “make any political statement they wish, as long as it’s not violent”.

Before Senator Hanson’s stunt, Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik said the senator’s attempts to ban the burka and the link it to national security concerns was “frustrating”.

“This will deepen existing safety risks for Australian Muslim women who choose to wear the headscarf, the hijab, or the full face and body covering, the burka,” he said in a statement.

“They already face harassment, threats of rape, and violence, not because what they have done, but because of what they wear.

“All women should be free to choose what they wear or do not wear.”…