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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has triggered a firestorm around religious freedoms, after wearing a burqa into Parliament, a stunt that has united all sides of politics in condemnation.
The Queensland senator, accompanied by colleague Brian Burston, entered the Senate dressed in a black Islamic dress shortly after question time began on Thursday afternoon - her senator pin still on display.
As senators could be heard groaning and gasping at her entrance, Senate President Stephen Parry confirmed it was Senator Hanson beneath the face covering, while seeming unsure of how to officially respond to the performance.
Attorney-General George Brandis showed no hesitation.
When Senator Hanson whipped off the garment with a dramatic flourish, exclaiming how glad she was to be free of it, and asked Senator Brandis if the government would join her in banning the burqa, he did not hold back.
"Senator Hanson, no, we will not be banning the burqa," he said, visibly angry, and looking at one point like he was close to tears.
"I am not going to pretend to ignore the stunt that you have tried to pull today by arriving in the chamber dressed in a burqa when we all know that you are not an adherent of the Islamic faith.
"I would caution and counsel you with respect to be very, very careful of the offence you may do to the religious sensibilities of other Australians."
"We have about 500,000 Australians in this country of the Islamic faith and the vast majority of them are law-abiding good Australians.
"Senator Hanson, for the last four years, I have had responsibility pre-eminently among the ministers subject to the Prime Minister for national security policy.
"And I can tell you, Senator Hanson, that it has been the advice of each director-general of security with whom I have worked and each commissioner of the Australian Federal Police with whom I have worked that it is vital for their intelligence and law enforcement work that they work co-operatively with the Muslim community, and to ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do.
"I would ask you to reflect on that."
In extraordinary scenes, Labor and Greens senators burst into spontaneous applause, before getting to their feet in enthusiastic praise, while his Coalition colleagues remained seated.
Senator Hanson and Senator Burston left the chamber shortly after, to calls of "good on you, George" from the opposing side.
But she had made her point, reigniting a debate that flamed in 2014 when then-prime minister Tony Abbott was forced to reverse a decision by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senator Parry to isolate women wearing a burqa or niqab in glass enclosures away from the public galleries.
ASIO head Duncan Lewis rebuked Senator Hanson earlier this year after she asked whether a terrorist threat was "being brought in" with Middle Eastern refugees.
"We've made it plain on a number of occasions, senator, that we have no security reason to be concerned about the wearing of a burqa other than the requirement for individuals to identify themselves to authorities, and there are regulations in place for that," Mr Lewis said in May.
He stood by his assessment despite criticism from One Nation and conservative members of the Coalition in the following days.
In 2014, Fairfax Media revealed ASIO had examined the issue and concluded the consequences of banning the burqa would be "predominantly, if not wholly, negative".
The previously secret 2011 report found a ban would increase tension and distrust between communities and provide "further fuel for extremist propaganda, recruitment, and radicalisation efforts".
But while politicians from across the political divide united in their praise of Senator Brandis for his swift and unwavering condemnation of her actions, Senator Hanson - whose party was recently named by the Trump administration as a threat to religious freedoms - was relishing having "started the debate". "It was a horrible feeling, I felt just cut off from the rest of the world," she told Radio 2GB.
"Here I am, no one can see my facial features, no one can see if I have given them a smile, or look at my eyes, or my reaction to them - isn't that a part of our society, that we have to interact with people?
"It is foreign to us. This is not our way of life. And so many in the suburbs of Sydney, if you are honest about it, if you are not a Muslim, you really don't want to go to these places because you don't feel welcome there."
Islamic Friendship Association of Australia spokesman Keysar Trad predicted some "women who wear the burqa will feel hurt and will feel that they are under siege again" by the Senator's actions.
"Why isn't Pauline Hanson supporting their right to dress as they choose?"
Islamic Council of Victoria vice-president Adel Salman said the stunt was offensive, and "doesn't really help the debate".
"The current discourse is really negative. It's about time [Senator Hanson] is ridiculed and her platform is ridiculed," he said.
Both Mr Trad and Mr Salman praised Senator Brandis' strong response.
Labor, Greens and other crossbench senators, including Derryn Hinch and Nick Xenophon, called for Senator Hanson's stunt to be ignored.
Undeterred, Senator Hanson took to the Senate floor later that same day to deliver a speech calling for the burqa ban and claiming Islam was "threatening our way of life", speaking to an almost empty room.
