Canberra : A move to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate enclosed public gallery at Australia’s Parliament House has been reversed, media reported Monday.
Earlier this month, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new rules applying to anyone wearing “facial coverings”, ABC News reported.
But the move caused an outcry and an intervention from Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is believed to have told Bishop that “common sense should prevail”.
A Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) statement on security arrangements released Monday said that it had replaced the earlier measures.
The new arrangements stipulate that all visitors entering Parliament will be required to “temporarily remove any coverings”.
“That will enable security staff to identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk,” DPS said in the statement.
“Once this process has taken place, visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place.”