Like clockwork, the Coalition has called for a review of Lidia Thorpe‘s eligibility as a senator following her brilliant performance in Canberra during King Charles and Queen Camilla‘s Australia visit.
The main criticism is that fact that she said she had sworn allegiance to Queen Elizabeth’s “hairs”, rather than “heirs”, which the independent senator said was “accidental”.
After Thorpe suggested that she intentionally mispronounced a sentence in the oath when she was sworn in as a senator in 2022, she later altered her position, saying it was because her “English grammar isn’t as good as others”.
Now, opposition Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, has called Thorpe’s standing as a senator into question, raising section 42 of the constitution that requires an individual to both make and subscribe to the oath or affirmation of office to be eligible to sit in the Senate, Guardian Australia reports.
Birmingham penned a letter to Senate president Sue Lines on Thursday on behalf of Coalition senators in which he wrote that Thorpe’s comments were “deeply concerning”.
“Taking the oath or affirmation is one of the few requirements placed upon a senator following their election. Senator Thorpe’s actions and admission undermine this important process,” Birmingham wrote.
“The Coalition believes this matter must be resolved so that the integrity and authority of the Senate is maintained.”
Birmingham also wrote that her “outburst” posed a “risk” that other powerful folk who visit Australia would not want to speak in Australia’s parliament for fear of being called out in a similar way.
“[It] has too high a potential for embarrassment,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, crusty old coote Barnaby Joyce has described her $250,000 a year salary as “illegitimate”.
“(Senator Thorpe’s oath admission) means that all the salary she’s received thus far is illegitimate,” he and his dumb hat alleged.
Thorpe recently hit back at her critics, telling SBS News: “You can make new rules, but Blak people in this country are used to being shut down and obviously the parliament are shuffling around very busily to work out a way to shut me down.”
The controversy kicked off when Senator Thorpe, a Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman, went to town on King Charles during his Australia visit, rightfully calling him out for his long-standing silence on the British monarchy’s involvement in colonisation.
Thorpe previously responded to calls for her to resign, sharing that she “really doesn’t care”.
In response to the royal heckling, a whole bunch of people got very upset and condemned Lidia Thorpe for her “disrespectful” display.
Many got on their moral high horse and began lecturing on the importance of being polite, and finding nicer ways to tell someone that they have effectively built an empire on the blood of Australia’s Indigenous population with little-to-zero consequences.
Leader of the Opposition and man who knows exactly what Indigenous Aussies want, Peter Dutton, has come out publicly to call for Thorpe to resign from politics “on principle”.
“I think there’s a very strong argument for somebody who doesn’t believe in the system but is willing to take a quarter of a million dollars a year from the system to resign in principle,” Dutton told Sunrise, in reference to how much money politicians are paid.
“If you were truly about your cause and not yourself, I think that’s a decision you would make.”
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