PUP members free to vote on burqa ban

Palmer United Party (PUP) has no policy about burqas but its senator Jacqui Lambie is free to try to ban the religious attire.

Party leader Clive Palmer says he and his trio of senators can vote however they wish on any private member’s bill they may produce.

Senator Lambie has indicated she will put legislation to parliament to ban the burqa.

She is likely to find allies in coalition backbenchers Cory Bernardi and George Christensen.

Mr Palmer declined to say how he would vote on it, arguing that as party leader he didn’t want to influence the other PUP senators.

‘On the burqa ... we don’t have a policy,’ he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

It is the right of all members of parliament to put forward private member’s bills.

‘When they bring them forward in our party there’s no restriction on how we vote on them,’ he said.

Senator Lambie has said banning burqas is a national security issue.

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