Australia’s Parliament House Lifts Face Veil Ban – NYTimes.com

Update on earlier story and follow-up to PM Abbott’s expression that ban was wrong:

The announcement was made a few hours before the end of the final sitting day of Parliaments last two-week session and had no practical effect.

Hours before Parliament was to resume on Monday, the Department of Parliamentary Services, or DPS, said in a statement that people wearing face coverings would again be allowed in all public areas of Parliament House.

It said face coverings would have to be removed temporarily at the security check point 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 elaborating.

The ban on face veils in the public galleries had been widely condemned as a segregation of Muslim women and a potential breach of federal anti-discrimination law.

Australia’s Parliament House Lifts Face Veil Ban – NYTimes.com.