'Threat from terrorism is real': Senator Jacqui Lambie tables burqa ban bill
Senator Jacqui Lambie has renewed her bid to ban the burqa from public places after introducing a new bill to prohibit full face coverings in Commonwealth jurisdictions.
After an unsuccessful attempt in 2014 to ban the burqa from public places, the crossbench senator introduced a private senators' bill on Wednesday banning full face coverings for places such as airports and other Commonwealth jurisdictions including the ACT and Northern Territory.
She's likely to find some support in the upper house, among crossbench colleagues like Cory Bernardi and Pauline Hanson.
The tabled law change would also make it an offence to force another person or child to wear a full face covering, punishable by imprisonment.
She insists full face coverings make Australians fearful and the right to feel safe must outweigh the right for expression of religious freedom.
Lambie said a nationwide ban on all identity-concealing garments is needed for national security reasons, unless the individual has a reasonable and lawful excuse.
"Gone are the easy days of the past where we knew and trusted our neighbours and left our backdoors unlocked," she told parliament.
"The threat from organised crime and terrorism is real."
The ban would kick in when the national terrorism threat level reached "probable", however, given it already is at that level, the ban would begin immediately.
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In 2014 Lambie unsuccessfully tried to introduce a bill that would have seen parents jailed or fined up to $68,000 for forcing their children to wear the burqa.
“For basic security reasons and the need for assimilation, identity-concealing garments should not be allowed in Australian public or Parliament House,” Ms Lambie stated back in 2014.
Senator Bernardi, who quit the coalition on Tuesday to sit as an independent conservative, backed the ban, labelling the burqa a security issue.
"The burqa is the flag of fundamentalist Islam and it's really not compatible with our values," he told 2GB.
Parliamentary Secretary and Member for Davidson, Jonathan O'Dea, told 7 News: "In public, people should show their faces as part of operating and living in a free open society."
He said “most normal reasonable people” would support the move to "ban the burqa" as it was not an issue of discrimination against a particular segment of our community.
"While I support principles of inclusion and religious tolerance, it is generally not appropriate in an open society to cover your face in public," Mr O'Dea wrote in a News Corp column.
"I believe face coverings that unreasonably prevent a person from being readily identifiable in public places - including burqas, niqabs, motorbike helmets, balaclavas and masks, should not be allowed.
"The police should be given powers to enforce their removal, just as they are able to prevent people walking down the street with no clothes on."
Today's top news stories - February 9
