Team members of the Parliamentary Security Service are not obliged to provide their personal details to members of the public, according to a response to a question on notice asked by the Australian Greens during the most recent round of Senate estimates.
Senator David Shoebridge asked the Department of Parliamentary Services to clarify the policy on the provision of personal details following an incident on February 7, when a woman wearing a keffiyeh was questioned by security staff.
Shoebridge said he received a report on the incident from a legal observer who had spoken to the woman concerned.
“She was wearing a keffiyeh. She was of Lebanese background. There were two males at the same time approaching security, wearing keffiyehs. They weren’t of Lebanese background. They were permitted through,” Shoebridge said.
“She was stopped. She had a ‘Free Palestine’ sticker on, which she removed, and then she sought to go through and she was denied access by the security guard. She said that she was wearing the keffiyeh for cultural reasons, and the security guard responded that she wasn’t dressed culturally appropriately because she was, and I quote here, ‘showing too much skin’.”
The matter escalated further when the security team took it to supervisors, Shoebridge said during the February 12 hearing, and that other individuals present with the woman complained about racial profiling.
“It was only after it was escalated up that, eventually, she was allowed entry. That’s what happened,” Shoebridge said.
“She was allowed entry only after that appalling interaction and the escalation that occurred. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
The department’s assistant first secretary, Leanne Tunningley, oversees the security division. She told Shoebridge she would make further inquiries into the incident.
The department subsequently backed in the actions taken by its staff on the day of the incident in its reply to the Senate estimates questions.
“The Department of Parliamentary Services does not have a policy supporting staff providing their personal details to members of the public,” the response to Shoebridge says.
“A review was undertaken of the interaction with the individual entering Australian Parliament House (APH) on 7 February 2024. It was established that Parliamentary Security Service (PSS) officers conducted their duties in line with APH security procedures, with support from their team leaders.
“PSS officers escalated the situation to their management, as appropriate. As a result, the individual was permitted entry into APH.”
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