Senator swore oath to Queen’s ‘hairs’ not heirs
An Indigenous senator under fire for shouting at King Charles says she swore an oath to the Queen’s “hairs” rather than heirs when taking her seat in parliament.
Former Greens and now independent senator Lidia Thorpe confronted the King during a reception in Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” she shouted.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
“You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty.”
Asked on Thursday about public blowback from her actions, Thorpe said it was “just another day in the colony”.
“I wanted to send a message to the King, I got that message across. The whole world is talking about it,” she said.
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“My people are happy because my people have been protesting for decades and decades, as you all know, for exactly this.
“So the message has been sent, delivered. Now it’s up to the King of England to respond.”
The Victorian senator also said she swore an oath of allegiance to the late Queen’s “hairs”, not heirs, when taking her seat in 2022.
“I swore allegiance to the queen’s hairs,” she told the ABC on Wednesday.
“If you listen close enough, it wasn’t her ‘heirs’, it was her ‘hairs’ that I was giving my allegiance to, and now that, y’know, they are no longer here, I don’t know where that stands.”
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The Opposition is examining the senator’s eligibility to sit and take part in upper house proceedings under section 42 of the Constitution.
“The coalition will explore options and consider legal opinions as to the implications of Senator Thorpe’s admission,” the coalition’s leader in the Senate Simon Birmingham said.
Constitutional lawyer Anne Twoomey said on Thursday that words the senator spoke aloud were beside the point because she had also signed a written oath.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Thorpe’s admission about her oath was “an unusual thing”.
“I have to say, we’re all part of an institution that is the parliament and our democracy, and within that, we have very different views,” she said.
However, Wong said Thorpe needed to “reflect on the institution of which she is a part, and how she wishes to play a role in that institution”.
Thorpe on Thursday repeated that she would not resign and defended her parliamentary salary, saying “it’s paying the rent”.
“I’m getting paid by the colony to bring up the issues that my people raise with me,” she said.
Labor senator Katy Gallagher also said Thorpe needed to consider her position.
“We need to work out a way to ensure that the institution of the Senate … is upheld and respected, and I think that’s at times challenged with some behaviour in particular from Senator Thorpe,” she said.
“She also does like the attention that comes from these public displays.
“We’ll work with people across the chamber about what the appropriate response is.”
– with AAP
