The Point Live: Nationals push for Coalition to delay mining friendly environment laws, while the fallout from Hanson's Islamophobic burqa stunt continues. As it happened

Independent senator Fatima Payman has been asked by ABC News Breakfast whether Pauline Hanson’s stunt was racist in her opinion and says:

Absolutely. Pauline Hanson and her actions are not reflective of the broader Australian public and the community. In fact, I just came from the Australian Catholic University inner faith breakfast here in Parliament House this morning and so many people came up to me and were absolutely appalled by the disgraceful behaviour of Pauline Hanson.

They were sharing sympathies and expressing that this is very un-Australian for a senator to pull the same trick out of the bag and be disrespectful to a segment of society.

Ali Kadri said he also thinks the government can do a lot more than what it is to address Islamophobia.

I think that the Government is taking it seriously, but we need to take it even more seriously. Because people like Pauline Hanson are trying to divert attention from the real issues which Australians are facing – the housing crisis, the cost of living crisis.

They don’t care about red herring issues like a burka ban. So I think that the Government needs to do more, and I think that the recommendations need to be adopted as soon as possible.

…A lot of members of my community are scared to go out in public, because verbal abuse is, unfortunately, a common occurrence for many. And especially for women, because they’re more visibly Muslim than men in most cases.

And as I said earlier, when Pauline does these kind of stunts in the Parliament, it actually escalates, radicalises more people and makes people think that it is OK to go and abuse fellow Australians.

The chief executive of the Islamic College of Brisbane, Ali Kadri is speaking to ABC News Breakfast about Pauline Hanson’s latest Islamophobic stunt, after she wore a burqa in the senate for the second time in her career.

Asked what he thought when he saw it, Kadri says:

When I saw Pauline Hanson do this again, I thought that that stunt belonged on TikTok, not in our Parliament. I mean, all she’s doing is making a joke out of the Parliament and the parliamentary process with this red herring issue, which no-one else except her and a few other people care about.

Kadri said he sees the impact Hanson and those like her have on the Muslim community, including children:

Let me give you a fresh example from yesterday. I represent one of the largest Islamic schools in the state with 1,800 And yesterday, when I was driving back home, one of the students was waiting to get picked up outside the gates of the school. And this is a young, primary aged student who of waiting for a parent to come and pick her up. And an adult male passing in a ute was slurring and hurling abuses at her. This is the experience of Australian Muslims. Whenever Pauline Hanson does these stunts in the Parliament, it escalates and radicalises people even more where people think that it is OK to abuse a little Australian Muslim girl wearing a hijab.

Anthony Albanese will meet with Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China in Canberra today.

Yesterday, supporters and protesters lined the main entry road to parliament and the lawns ahead of Zhao’s visit.

The department which heads up parliamentary services yesterday sent an email to parliamentarians warning there could be disruptions to the parliamentary wifi service and asked that wifi connected devices in areas where Zhao and his delegation will travel through, be switched off.

During his weekly breakfast TV ‘debate’ yesterday, Barnaby Joyce mentioned that he had not yet been invited by Pauline Hanson for the steak dinner she had promised to talk about his future. Last night, his office released a photo of Joyce and Hanson dining under a portrait of Hanson in her office to the Nine newspapers. Because they are ‘ordinary Australians’ despite their massive salaries and personal wealth, they made sure to have the Saxa salt front and centre.

Hanson was riding high, having been suspended by the senate just hours earlier for her xenophobic burqa stunt which was too much even for Joyce ally, conservative Matt Canavan who told the ABC yesterday:

You can make a fair and reasonable point about immigration and migration and integration and Pauline has a voice to do that in the Senate but this kind of stunt, it weakens her case and cheapens our Parliament, and most Australians will look away in disgust.”

Hanson’s stunt and the release of the dinner photo gives the Coalition some fresh air in this last sitting week, which began with Sussan Ley (and every other leadership contender) being outpolled by ‘don’t know’ as preferred Coalition leader and the Coalition’s 2PP vote falling to 42% – a further electoral wipe out. Got to love an ally, right? Just taking one for the team?

We are back for the last party room Tuesday. And oh to be a fly in the wall of the joint party room today, as the Nationals now openly flex as much muscle as possible and push for the Coalition to vote against Labor’s mining friendly environmental laws.

Oh that’s right – we don’t need to be flies because the Coalition is also full of yappers. And yapping those yappers have been. Bridget McKenzie had a chat to the SMH where she told Paul Sakkal and Mick Foley the Nationals thought a ‘yeah, nah’ to passing the legislation was in order, which shows you who is really in charge (just in case you didn’t know). And it’s not just McKenzie – Nationals MPs have been yapping up a storm about what they want to do next and this was on their list.

And while it’s not exactly a bad thing for the Coalition not to pass these terrible laws, it’s entirely for the wrong reasons. Which again, isn’t the worst thing in the world, because all of this is just pushing the Coalition to its inevitable end point of splitsville (centre right politics will survive, but there is no law that says the Coalition has to) but it’s a lot of annoying pain in the meantime. They are the Ross Gellar of political parties.

So that leaves Murray Watt talking to the Greens and maybe including some actual environmental protections or choosing to shelve the legislation again because of Labor’s refusal to negotiate something industry isn’t happy with.

The senate is also dealing with the fallout from Pauline Hanson’s latest Islamophobic stunt, with the One Nation senator having donned a burqa in the senate for the second time in her career.

The stunt, which she performed for a cheer squad she had brought along in the public gallery, as well as her allies who giggled and smirked their way through her suspension motion.

Hanson has given the Coalition some clear air, which was obviously one of the aims, but it has also once again damaged the senate and insulted the Muslim community. It is almost impossible to imagine any other community being so so openly vilified in the parliament. Hanson has achieved her aim, but she was never going to pay the actual cost.

You’ll have me, Amy Remeikis to guide you through most of the day. And at least four coffees. And some mini cupcakes. We all need some little something-something.

Mike Bowers is on a special assignment so we will miss him today but you will have factchecks and special guest posts throughout the day.

Ready? Good. Me neither. But still – let’s get into it.