‘Look, I can’t let you in wearing that’

In 2024, Jamie was working in Parliament House as a staff member for a politician.

In November last year, during a Parliamentary sitting week, Jamie went to observe Senate Question Time from the public gallery.

People wishing to enter either the Senate or House of Representatives public galleries have to pass through security, including an X-ray machine and screening by security guards before walking up a narrow walkway leading to the doors of the public gallery, at which another security guard is present.

Jamie passed through the X-ray machine and screening without incident, but was stopped when they reached the public gallery doors.

“A security guard stopped me and told me I wasn’t allowed to go in wearing the keffiyeh,” they said. “He wasn’t aggressive, but he just said ‘Look, I can’t let you in wearing that’.”