Australia backs down on controversial burqa ban in parliament

A move to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate enclosed public gallery at Parliament House has been reversed, thanks apparently to the intervention of Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Earlier this month, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new rules applying to anyone wearing " facial coverings", which would have had the effect of segregating Muslim women wearing facial coverings such as burqas or niqabs.
The pair later justified the decision on security grounds.
But the move caused an outcry, and a backlash in the Muslim community, and it is believed that Abbott's intervention -- he reportedly told Bishop that "common sense should prevail" -- was one of the reasons the rule was rescinded.
Abbott called on the pair to rethink the policy, noting that all members of the public in the galleries had already cleared airport-style security checkpoints.
On Monday morning, a Department of Parliamentary Services statement said it had scrapped the controversial measures.
The new arrangements stipulate that all visitors entering Parliament will be required to "temporarily remove any coverings".
"That will enable security staff to identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk," DPS said in the statement.
Parry said on Monday he and Bishop had reason to believe a protest was about to be held in Parliament and the protagonists might remain anonymous if they were wearing garments covering their faces.
"I was advised that a group of people, some being male, were going to disrupt Question Time in the House of Representatives," Parry said. "The advice further indicated that this group would be wearing garments that would prevent recognition of facial features and possibly their gender."
"As a result of this advice .... the Speaker and I agreed to put in place temporary measures to ensure that such an event in the public gallery would not be disruptive, particularly when the identity of any person causing disruption would be difficult to determine."
Senator Parry would not reveal the background of what advice was received, but confirmed the Australian Federal Police and ASIO had no involvement in the decision.
Bishop is yet to comment on the issue.
Today's move met with different responses from either side of the political divide.
Labor's manager of opposition business, frontbencher Tony Burke, said the backdown was welcome but that the Speaker and President still needed to explain why this "farce" was initiated.
"What possessed them to think that segregation was a good idea? " he said.
"I want children to learn about segregation when they're reading the courtroom scenes in To Kill A Mockingbird, not when they come on their excursion to Parliament House."
But Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie, an outspoken opponent of facial coverings, said she was deeply disappointed with the about-face.
"The decision today to allow burkas and other forms of identity- concealing items of dress to be worn in Australia's Parliament will put a smile on the face of the overseas Islamic extremists and their supporters in Australia who view the burqa or niqab as flags for extremism," she said in statement.