Australia’s Parliament House lifts face veil ban

Associated Press ^ | Oct 20, 2014 9:31 AM EDT | Rod McGuirk

[Olog-hai]

Australia’s Parliament House on Monday lifted a short-lived ban on facial coverings including burqas and niqabs after the prime minister intervened.

The department that runs Parliament House had announced earlier this month that “persons with facial coverings” would no longer be allowed in the open public galleries. Instead, they were to be directed to galleries usually reserved for noisy schoolchildren where they could sit behind soundproof glass.

That announcement was made just as Parliament’s last two-week session was ending and had no practical effect.

On Monday, the Department of Parliamentary Services, or DPS, said people wearing face coverings would be allowed in all public areas of Parliament House. …

[knarf]

The world over has 'leaders' that negate the people's wills.

truly a world war on the horizon.

[headstamp 2]

Nothing but weakness on all fronts in the face of destruction.

[Noamie]

Why do liberals hate women so much and want them chained up?

[Rodamala]

Start showing up with these on...

[Gay State Conservative]

One would think that anyone entering an important government building like the Parliament building with their face covered would be seen as a potential security threat.However,I'd be willing to bet that under Obola the only folks entering *our *government buildings to be seen as threats are "typical white people" who "cling to their guns and religion".

Oh,and veterans of the Armed Forces.Didn't Nopalitano once classify vets as being potential terrorists?

[naturalman1975]

The problem is this whole thing was mishandled. The ban should have explicitly been on all forms of face coverings with no exceptions - but it wasn’t. It was specifically on religious headcoverings. This would almost made it both unconstitutional under Section 116 of the Constitution, as well as violating anti-discrimination laws. So it could not be allowed to stand.

Now, if there are any security issues of real concern, the appropriate authorities (the Australian Federal Police) are free to reintroduce restrictions that clearly do not reference religion (such as ‘no covering of the face under any circumstances’) in a way that will pass constitutional muster, and legal muster. As it was, the restrictions put in place prevented that happening, and would have almost certainly been struck down by the High Court anyway.