21-year-old apprentice Jasmyn Smith was shocked when a security officer told her to remove the t-shirt she was wearing, which featured a small Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) logo, in the middle of the public foyer at Parliament House.
Smith, a third year electrical apprentice from Launceston, was visiting Canberra for National TAFE Day to speak to politicians about issues faced by young apprentices.
She arrived at the public entrance to Parliament House with around 20 apprentices from around the country on Wednesday morning. They entered the building in small groups, many wearing clothing, badges and backpacks with the CEPU or Electrical Trade Union (ETU) logo.
But only Smith, and the group of five apprentices she was with, were approached by a security guard as they were standing in the Marble Foyer and told to take off their union clothing.
Smith told BuzzFeed News:
We had walked through security at the public entrance and were waiting in the main foyer.
A security guard came up and said: "Sorry, you can't wear union shirts here you need to take them off".
He specifically spoke to me and straight up said: "You need to take that off," referring to my jumper which says CPEU Tasmania.
I said that I had a CPEU shirt on underneath and he said: "You'll have to take that off as well."
I said, "I can't".
He said: "Take it off and turn it inside out".
I said, "I can't really take it off", because we were surrounded by people.
He pointed and said I could go over to the side of the foyer.
He was pretty aggressive and he specifically said "no union".
I didn't know what to do until someone gave me their jacket to put on and cover up my shirt.
Smith said the male guard specifically told the group that union material was banned from Parliament House.
This is despite earlier groups of apprentices entering in CPEU and ETU clothing, and Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union officials wearing union shirts around the building earlier in the week.
"He pinpointed us, he walked straight to us," she said. "He was abrupt...and I know if we didn't take our shirts off there would be an issue."
Smith said the group walked past a number of security guards outside and inside the building, but only one officer singled them out.
Mark Burgess, the national apprenticeship officer with the ETU was accompanying the group and was also asked to remove two badges with the union's logo. He refused, but was still permitted to enter the building.
"It's not campaign material, it's not offensive, it's our logo of our business," Burgess told BuzzFeed News.
"And where we're from, if someone from Apple came in, wearing an Apple logo, are they going to tell them to take their shirt off?" Smith added.
BuzzFeed News spoke to a number of unions which said staff routinely wear clothing emblazoned with union logos in Parliament House, and don't know why this group was targeted.
This was Smith's first visit to Parliament House, and it's left a sour taste in her mouth.
"I think these rules are stupid, if it is a real rule," she said. "If it was an issue for the other groups, or there was another security guard who explained that we would need to cover it up when we first came in, it probably wouldn't have been such a big issue. But because it was just that one security guard who came up after all these other ones had walked past us and left the situation alone, it made it seem political."
Smith was hoping to focus on talking to politicians about TAFE funding, low and inconsistent wages for apprentices, insecure work and the casualisation of TAFE teachers.
This isn't the first time someone has been asked to remove an item of clothing in Parliament House.
In 2015 a journalist was told to remove his t-shirt (emblazoned with the famous New York Post headline "Headless body in topless bar") by parliament security officers as it was deemed "offensive".
The Department of Parliamentary Services, which manages the security staff at Parliament House, did not answer BuzzFeed News' questions seeking clarification on the rules around clothing and whether union material is banned within the house.
UPDATE
Labor raised the incident with Senate president Scott Ryan on Thursday afternoon. Ryan said there is a general “no slogans” policy in Parliament House but said he would investigate the incident and report back to the Senate with an answer on Monday.