One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been suspended from parliament after she refused to apologise for wearing a burqa in the Senate.

Hanson entered the upper house on Monday afternoon wearing the religious garment shortly after failing to move a bill banning the Islamic covering from public places.

She was formally censured on Tuesday in the upper house, which called on her to apologise for her stunt.

After she doubled down on the move, Hanson was suspended from the Senate for seven days, with the current sitting week being the final sitting week for the year.

Hanson denied lacking respect for people of faith, claiming the religious covering was imposed on women by male relatives.

“The burqa is culturally worn by some people of Islamic faith, but it is not a religious requirement,” she said.

“It’s so hypocritical, see that you’re supposed to be defending women’s rights, but you’re not going out there and fighting for these women [who] wear this burqa, full face coverings when it’s against their will.”

Hanson walked out before a vote on suspending her could be held.

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson has worn a burqa in the Senate chamber for a second time. Photo: Mike Bowers

Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Senate a friend’s child had asked if all Christians hated Muslims following the incident.

In response, United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet called out “I do”.

Wong said the stunt had mocked and vilified an entire faith, while causing “cruel consequences” for the most vulnerable.

“Senator Hanson’s hateful and shallow pageantry tears at our social fabric, and I believe it makes Australia weaker,” she said.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said the nation needed honest and respectful debate that didn’t appropriate religious symbols for political purposes.

Independent senator Fatima Payman, who quit Labor over its stance on Palestine, said the behaviour left others feeling unsafe.

“This is … an old trick that Pauline Hanson’s pulled out of the bag. Very disrespectful, very un-Australian,” she told ABC News

Payman, a Muslim, said the stunt could lead to schoolgirls and women wearing hijabs being abused or assaulted.

Cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek pointed to the issue of growing right-wing extremism in Australia.

“I don’t remember the last time someone in a burqa robbed a bank, but I do recall a couple of weeks ago that there was a queue of neo-Nazis standing outside NSW Parliament,” she told ABC radio.

It’s the second time Hanson has worn the burqa inside the parliament.

After first attempting the stunt in the upper house in 2017, she was slammed by then attorney-general George Brandis, who labelled it an “appalling thing to do”.

Brandis labelled the latest incident “despicable”.

“Every once in a while, she dreams up a new stunt to try and make herself the centre of political attention and discussion,” he told ABC radio.

“It reminds people both that the One Nation party has absolutely nothing to offer the Australian people, but also that the kind of politics they practice are ugly and divisive politics.”

Redbridge Group director and former Victorian Labor strategist Kos Samaras said the “permanent problem for right-wing populist outfits is that protest is easy”.

Censure motions do not have any legal consequences but they are rare, and give parliamentarians the chance to formally express their disapproval of colleagues.

-AAP