Hanson’s burqa antics dodges hard questions on multiculturalism

Eight years after her first burqa stunt, Pauline Hanson pulled it out of the wardrobe department for another theatrical turn in the Senate.

Her cosplay, however, shows what happens when democratic discourse gets displaced onto symbols rather than engaging with underlying policy challenges.

The value pluralism characterising our increasingly diverse society presents genuine complexities. But instead of wrestling with those challenges, we find ourselves trapped in repetitive debates about dress codes, parliamentary props and disrespect — and this increasingly characterises Australian political discourse.

When legitimate concerns about cultural integration, secular social norms or religious freedom become difficult to express in public debate, they don’t simply disappear.

Instead, those anxieties get displaced onto concrete, visible symbols which are easier to argue about and get enraged over.

The burqa becomes a proxy for deeper questions about how a democratic society manages competing value systems.

This is where the displacement ratchet effect kicks in. Each cycle of panic and outrage around these proxy issues makes it progressively harder to return to substantive discussions of underlying concerns.

The ratchet clicks again, making any airing of questions about social integration or religious accommodation boundaries increasingly ‘problematic’. This means future anxieties must find new — often more distorted — displacement outlets.

Consider the trajectory since Hanson’s first parliamentary burqa stunt in 2017. What we should have had was mature discussion about secular governance and religious diversity. Instead we have discourse that has become more heated, polarised and superficial.

The ratchet’s clicking ensures we cannot easily return to fundamental questions about how liberal democracy balances individual religious freedom with broader social cohesion, or manages secular civic culture without French-style forced assimilation.

When parliament spends precious time fuming about theatrical gestures, it avoids the harder institutional work of developing frameworks for managing value pluralism.

The displacement ratchet delivers dress code debates instead of integration policy, and symbolic performances rather than evidence-based approaches to social cohesion.

The cost to our democracy is profound. When displacement and ratchet effects combine, democracies lose their capacity for adaptive governance.

Real policy challenges — from immigration frameworks to religious accommodation — remain unaddressed while political energy is expended on proxy battles and theatre.

Let’s be clear: the freedom to wear religious dress should be defended. But we must not pretend that restating this liberal principle resolves deeper questions about cultural integration — which is what the debate is really about.

Hanson’s divisive stunt perpetuates a cycle where genuine policy challenges become impossible to address.

This dysfunction should concern us all. When business and community leaders, politicians and institutional stakeholders cannot engage substantively with complex challenges — whether about cultural diversity, immigration, or social cohesion — they lose both legitimacy and effectiveness.

The displacement-ratchet cycle represents institutional failure that undermines capacity for good, long-term government. Breaking that cycle means recognising displacement for what it is: a symptom of democracy struggling to handle value pluralism.

Instead of allowing anxieties about cultural change to be channelled through political stunts, we need frameworks addressing integration challenges directly without either imposing forced assimilation or uncritically embracing multiculturalism.

Senator Hanson’s burqa theatrics may generate headlines, but they represent the antithesis of serious democratic governance. The challenge for Australia is moving beyond displacement politics to engage with underlying policy demands.

If we fail, our democratic discourse will remain trapped in unproductive loops while real problems remain unresolved.

The question isn’t whether we support or oppose the burqa. It’s whether democratic Australia can handle value pluralism without theatrical displacement.

The choice is between mature governance and perpetual performance.

Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies