Muslim women who wear the burqa into Federal Parliament will be banned from watching proceedings from regular public galleries and will be forced to sit in glass enclosures instead.
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Extra security measures were announced on Thursday afternoon while Parliament's Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry await security officials' advice on a request from Liberal senator Cory Bernardi to ban the religious face-covering from being worn in the building.
Senator Bernardi believes the burqa is a symbol of oppression and un-Australian but wants it banned from Parliament on security grounds.
A message from the Department of Parliamentary Services says while screening policies are under review it is "prudent to implement an additional layer of security controls".
"Persons with facial coverings entering the galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate will be seated in the enclosed galleries," the statement says.
"This will ensure that persons with facial coverings can continue to enter the chamber galleries, without needing to be identifiable."
The glassed enclosures are commonly used by school groups so the procedures of Parliament House can be explained to them without disrupting parliamentary proceedings.
Two separate broader reviews into who can be issued passes and whether the burqa should be banned outright in the building are still taking place and the presiding officers could still decide to extend restrictions to stop burqa wearers from entering the building.
Senator Parry said the changes were an "interim" and "management" measure.
"One of the key reasons for this is if there is an incident or someone is interjecting from the gallery, which as senators would know happens from time to time, they need to be identified quickly and easily so they can be removed for that interjection," he told the Senate.
The President said it was important that people interjecting weren't allowed back into the building "in disguise" if they had been booted out.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said this week that as far as he was aware nobody had ever sought to enter Parliament wearing the burqa.
But Senator Bernardi has told Fairfax Media his concerns were prompted after seeing a group of veiled individuals in the building three years ago.
In other new security arrangements, adult visitors being signed in by passholders, including journalists, staffers and bureaucrats will have to show ID, including those wearing burqas.
Currently, they can be signed in without showing any proof of who they are. Regular visitors to Parliament's public areas do not need to show any ID or be signed into the building.
Burqa restrictions condemned
The decision was immediately condemned by the federal human rights and race discrimination commissioners.
Race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane told Fairfax Media the ruling would see Muslim women treated differently to non-Muslim women.
"No-one should be treated like a second class citizen, not least in the Parliament," he said.
"I have yet to see any expert opinion or analysis to date which indicates that the burqa or the niqab represents an additional or special security threat.
"Muslim Australians are entitled to a fair go and to be treated as equal members of our society.
"If there is a concern with public safety or security, this surely would be met with the security screening that all visitors are required to undergo upon entry into Parliament."
He said he hoped the ruling did not mean bigots had won "because the vast majority of Australians understand that bigotry has no place in our society, and that there is no right to be a bigot".
Human rights commissioner Tim Wilson lashed the new security arrangement for treating some Australians as "a different type of citizen".
"This will treat free citizens wearing an otherwise legal piece of clothing, after they have gone through security, as a separate group of people," he said.
"There is no justification for such a measure. If there was a danger then why would we sit people with children?
"The need for separate treatment in the Federal Parliament for people who wear face covering is completely unjustified and unnecessary."
Immediately after the new rules were circulated, Greens leader Christine Milne said in a tweet the decision was "disgraceful".
"Just found out Muslim women who wear facial coverings are to be relegated to the part of Parliament reserved for rowdy school children," Senator Milne said.
Inflaming cultural divisions
Earlier in the day, the Greens leader wrote to Ms Bishop and Senator Parry urging them to reject the proposal for a burqa ban at Parliament House, describing it as an assault on multicultural values that would inflame cultural divisions.
Senator Milne wrote that Parliament should be "led by example and bring all members of our community together. We won't make Australians safer by marginalising and attacking people."
"Security screening already applies to everyone entering Parliament House," Senator Milne wrote.
"In airports and courts culturally appropriate screening protocols already exist which only require women to temporarily remove the burqa for identification purposes.
"However, the current proposal seeks to permanently ban the burqa in Parliament House, which is not only completely at odds with our multicultural and free society, but is not deemed necessary in airports for security and nor should it be at Parliament House."
The restrictions on the wearing of the burqa in Parliament come as PUP senator Jacqui Lambie has proposed a private members' bill banning the burqa from public spaces across Australia. On Thursday her stance was criticised by Maha Abdo from the Muslim Women's Association, who questioned as to how the facial covering was a risk.
with Lisa Cox
