Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I can advise the House that the President and I made a decision on advice that was given to us that there was an action planned that would have disrupted the business of the House. We would have been derelict in our duty if we had not dealt with it. We made an interim ruling. We said that the question of face coverings was relevant because of the need to identify people who disrupt from the galleries, and there was no private space available to the entry to these galleries for face identification. So the interim ruling was made. Today we have issued a further ruling which now says that people entering with face coverings will be facially identified at the point of entry of the building, where there is a private space where people can be facially identified before coming in, and therefore the other ruling is not necessary, because they can simply then come through into the chamber.

See this speech in context