It is Groundhog Day for Muslims in Australia. More than eight years since her first attempt, Pauline Hanson, fresh from rubbing shoulders with far-right extremists in the United States, has dug deep into her closet, dusted off her burqa and decided to unleash on Muslims again.
Pauline Hanson wears a burqa in the Senate on Monday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The fact that this is One Nation’s number one priority as we reach the end of another parliamentary year is further evidence of its hollow agenda. One Nation has nothing to offer Australians struggling with the cost of living and housing. It never has. All it has are pathetic but damaging publicity stunts. It has always flipped through the book of racist and Islamophobic policy and chosen the page that best meets its divisive agenda at the time. This time it landed on the burqa again.
But this is not really about a burqa. It’s not really about what a woman can or cannot wear, which should never be up for any debate. It is about One Nation trying to spark a culture war that distracts people from the real issues they face. It is about using an item of clothing to bring to the surface the underlying racism that “others” certain people, who One Nation and its backers want to scapegoat for issues not of their making.
And once again, it is migrants and Muslims who pay the price. The statistics about Muslims being attacked, abused and bullied over the years are well known. I am quite frankly sick of recounting them in a world where nothing really changes. Groups including the Islamophobia Register have raised the alarm for years. Countless individuals have been speaking out. Even the Christchurch mosque massacre, when an Australian far-right terrorist murdered 51 Muslims, was not a turning point for this country. The major parties still ignore this reality for Muslims, treating us like second-class citizens. Labor pays lip service to multiculturalism while dog whistling from the sidelines, and the Liberals pander to the far right by proposing “values screening” of migrants.
I feel physically sick when I see people like Pauline Hanson run these stunts. But as disgusting as they are, I expect this behaviour from One Nation. What is less reported is that Liberal MPs have been claiming Islamophobia is fictitious and does not exist. When I joined the Senate, politicians were giving speeches calling Islam a disease to be vaccinated against. The truth is that language directed at Muslims in Australian political life would never be accepted if directed at any other group.
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We have been ringing the bell on the rise of the far right for decades to no avail.
Muslims I speak to have just accepted that being used as a political football is the way it is. That breaks my heart, especially for young people. One reason I got into politics was to confront these merchants of hate face to face. There are more of us in parliament now, and we must call out racism and its perpetrators every time.
Racism is raging more openly and more viciously than I have ever seen in my time in this country. Neo-Nazis are flagrantly displaying their white supremacy outside NSW Parliament. The far right grows in the cracks of inequality. It feeds on desperation. It recruits from the communities that governments have abandoned. When people cannot afford rent, when they are working three jobs just to stay afloat, when the cost of living is crushing them and they see no political will to change it, the far right steps in with someone to blame.
