According to a LNP politician we are free to put whatever we want on our head, well if that is true people should put it to the test!
Bishop must explain burqa ruling: Labor
Coalition MP Andrew Broad says common sense has prevailed but believes the controversy hasn't damaged the parliament.
What people choose to put on their head should be their business, he said.
A CONTROVERSIAL plan to segregate people wearing face coverings in Parliament House has been dumped but questions remain about why it was introduced in the first place.
SPEAKER Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry have reversed their October 2 decision to seat people wearing burqas in glassed-off areas normally reserved for visiting school children.
The Department of Parliamentary Services now says all visitors to Parliament House will be required to temporarily remove any coverings that prevent the recognition of facial features, so staff can identify them.
"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," the DPS said in a statement on Monday.
The original decision came after a week of heated debate about the potential security risk posed by burqas.
But it provoked widespread criticism and prompted an intervention from Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Labor wants Mrs Bishop and Mr Parry to fully explain why they originally wanted to segregate people.
"I want children to learn about segregation when they're reading the courtroom scenes from To Kill a Mockingbird, not when they come on their excursion to Parliament House," Labor frontbencher Tony Burke told reporters.
"It's been an absurd fortnight as we've waited for a backdown that logically had to occur."
Senator Parry said the temporary restrictions had been put in place to stop a group of protesters during question time on October 2.
"The advice further indicated that this group would be wearing garments that would prevent recognition of their facial features and possibly their gender," he told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra.
"The speaker and I always envisaged that this would be subject to further review."
Coalition MP Andrew Broad says common sense has prevailed but believes the controversy hasn't damaged the parliament.
What people choose to put on their head should be their business, he said.
"At the end of the day we have a great democracy and ultimately we get it right," he told reporters in Canberra.
http://www.news.com.au/national/bre...rqa-ruling-labor/story-e6frfku9-1227095843184
