Australia's Parliament House on Monday lifted a ban imposed earlier this month on facial coverings including burqas and niqabs.
The decision to lift the ban was made after Prime Minister Tony Abbott asked House Speaker Bronwyn Bishop to rethink the decision.
Earlier this month, the government department that runs the Parliament House had announced that people with facial coverings would not be permitted to enter open public galleries of the Parliament's House of Representatives and Senate. They were restricted to galleries usually reserved for schoolchildren and which have soundproof glass.
However, the announcement made on Oct. 2, just before the end of the final sitting day of Parliament's two-week session, had no practical effect.
Before the resumption of Parliament on Monday, the Department of Parliamentary Services said in a statement that people wearing face coverings would again be permitted in all public areas of Parliament.
The statements said that people would have to remove face covering momentarily at the security check points at the front door so that staff could "identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk."
"Procedures are still in place to ensure that DPS security manage these procedures in a sensitive and appropriate manner," the statement said without going into details, reports the Associated Press.
However, Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie said she will proceed with a private members' bill making it unlawful to wear the burqa in public.
"The decision today to allow burqas and other forms of identity concealing items of dress to be worn in Australia's Parliament will put a smile on the face of the overseas Islamic extremists and their supporters in Australia - who view the burqa or niqab as flags for extremism," she said, reports news.com.au.
