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The three outside Parliament House in Canberra. Photo: EPA

Three protesters challenge Australian parliament’s face-veil regulations

Three men who attempted to enter Australia's Parliament House yesterday wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, a niqab and a motorcycle helmet said they were unfairly treated under new regulations targeting Muslim face veils

AP

Three men who attempted to enter Australia's Parliament House yesterday wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, a niqab and a motorcycle helmet said they were unfairly treated under new regulations targeting Muslim face veils.

The men want Muslim veils that cover the face banned from the nation's seat of government and said their stunt exposed inequality in the security system.

The three Sydney residents - Sergio Redegalli, 52, Nick Folkes, 45, and Victor Waterson, 49 - were eventually allowed inside the building, but not with their headwear.

"They have one rule for Muslim women and another for everybody else, and it's utterly sexist," Redegalli said.

The protest posed the latest quandary for Canberra officials. The department that runs Parliament House had announced earlier this month that "persons with facial coverings" would no longer be allowed in the open public galleries. Instead, they were to be directed to galleries usually reserved for schoolchildren, where they could sit behind soundproof glass.

The policy was branded a "burqa ban" and had been widely condemned as a segregation of Muslim women, as well as a potential breach of anti-discrimination laws.

Officials relented last week, saying people wearing face coverings would be allowed in all public areas of Parliament House, but face coverings must be removed temporarily at the building's front door so that staff could check the visitor's identity.

When the trio arrived at the front door yesterday, a security guard told Redegalli that he could not enter wearing his KKK hood, and advised Waterson that he could not wear his full-face motorcycle helmet.

Folkes initially was told he could enter wearing his niqab, but was later advised that he could not wear it inside.

Television stations aired video of the exchange.

The Department of Parliamentary Services said "protest paraphernalia" was not permitted inside Parliament House, and cited a longstanding ban on helmets for security reasons.

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