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The Australian Parliament on Monday abandoned a potentially controversial plan which would force women wearing the niqab or the burqa to sit in separated glassed enclosures in public.
They rejected the plan after a decision on October 2nd by Senate President Stephen Parry and Speaker Bronwyn Bishop to make people wearing face covering sit in areas usually reserved for noisy children who visit the parliament; the decision followed a heated debate about any potential security risks since rise of extremist group Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East.
The ruling was criticized by race and human rights discrimination groups, following which Prime Minister Tony Abbott asked the Parliament for reconsideration.
Race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane told a local media outlet that the original ruling would have led to discriminatory treatment of Muslim women in comparison to non-Muslim women.
“No-one should be treated like a second-class citizen, not least in the parliament. 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”, he said.
Labor opposition MP Tony Burke welcomed the fact that the bill was pulled back but noted that it should have never been introduced.
“What possessed them to think that segregation was a good idea? Segregation was previously introduced, apparently, with no security advice attached to it and no security reason attached to it”, Burke said.
In a statement, the Department of Parliamentary Services said that the rule has been changed so that all visitors should “temporarily remove any coverings” which prevent recognition of facial features”.
“This will enable security staff to identify anyone who may have been banned from entering the building or who may be known to be a security risk. Once this process has taken place visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place”, it said.