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Premier Colin Barnett: Muslims should not wear the burqa in public

Brendan Foster

Premier Colin Barnett has made the extraordinary claim he would not "encourage" Muslims to wear the burqa in public because "it's not part of our culture".

Earlier this week, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson hit the headlines after saying she would ban the burqa in all official buildings if her party wins the Queensland election.

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WA Premier says burqas should not be worn in Australia

Premier Colin Barnett has appealed to people not to wear burqas in Australia because "it's not a part of our culture".

With Ms Hanson set to jet into Perth on Wednesday afternoon to announce candidates for the upcoming March election, a reporter asked the Premier what he thought of One Nation's push to ban the burqa.

The Premier's shock response might be the earliest indication yet the Liberal party might be buddying up to One Nation in the hope of winning a third term, with Ms Hanson in the box seat to determine the outcome of the March election, as first predicted by WAtoday last November.

"We are not about to introduce laws in Western Australia to ban the burqa," he said.

"But I think when people come from other countries, other religious beliefs and other cultural issues, in relation to the burqa, I would encourage people not to wear that type of clothing in Australia and as Australian citizens.

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"It is not part of our culture. I think in most countries now you don't find it's the case." 

The Islamic Council of WA was planning to release a statement responding to the Premier.

Counter-terrorism expert Anne Aly - the first Muslim woman elected to federal parliament - said Mr Barnett's comments were "ridiculous".

"Ridiculous comments like this just show the real choice in this election," the Labor member for Cowan told WAtoday.

"While Colin Barnett was talking about what clothes Australians should wear, Mark McGowan and Bill Shorten were out talking about how to create more local jobs.

"I know what matters more to the people of Cowan, but I'm not sure if the Premier does."

You would expect it to come from the mouth of an uneducated redneck, not the Premier of WA.

Labor leader Mark McGowan, who was on the campaign trail with federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten in Perth on Wednesday, said women should make their own decisions about their bodies and their clothing.

"I think that's a fundamental point of Australian culture," he said. 

"Australian culture, for a long period of time, has been that women could make their own choices about their clothes and their bodies.

"That's something I believe in fundamentally."

Mr Barnett's burqa stance is not the first time the Premier has taken a swipe at the Muslim community.

Last month, Mr Barnett compared the City of Fremantle's plan to move Australia Day celebrations out of respect for the Aboriginal community to "banning Christmas because Muslims don't celebrate Christmas".

"They may have a view about Australia Day, and run all those old arguments, but they do not have the right to deny Australian citizens [this] right," Mr Barnett said at the time.

"Maybe they are going to ban Christmas because Muslims don't celebrate Christmas... what's next?"

At the time, Aboriginal elder Robert Eggington, from Nyoongar advocacy group Dumbartung, said Mr Barnett's comments were "dangerous".

"Comparing the decision to banning Christmas and then attacking the Muslim face is absurd," he said.

"You would expect it to come from the mouth of an uneducated redneck, not the Premier of Western Australia," he said.

Meanwhile, anti-racism campaigners have started a crowdfunding project for an Australia Day billboard advertisement featuring Australian Muslims, after backlash to a billboard showing two girls in hijab led to its removal. 

The photograph used for the billboard, which advertised an Australia Day event in Melbourne's Kings Domain Gardens, was taken at last year's Australia Day event at Docklands. In it, two young, smiling girls in hijab, are seen waving Australian flags.

But outraged social media users slammed the picture for being too "politically correct", and outdoor media company QMS took down the billboard after receiving threats. 

Anti-Islamophobia advocate Mariam Veiszadeh, Daily Life's 2016 Woman of the Year, reacted to the backlash on Tuesday by creating a "billboard" featuring herself and fellow high-profile hijabi Yassmin Abdel-Magied.  

- with Jenny Noyes

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