The federal Coalition is seeking advice on Lidia Thorpe’s eligibility to sit in parliament as the outspoken independent backpedalled on claims she deliberately misstated her Senate oath.
Senator Thorpe on Wednesday told the ABC that she had sworn loyalty to ‘the Queen’s hairs’ rather than the ‘the Queen’s heirs’ to justify interrupting a parliamentary reception of King Charles III and shouting abuse at the monarch on Monday.
The Coalition is now seeking legal advice on Senator Thorpe’s parliamentary status.
Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham has also raised questions about whether she could legally sit in the Upper House if she had not properly taken the oath of allegiance.
‘This is a deeply serious claim to be making that does bring her eligibility to participate in the proceedings of the Senate into question,’ Senator Birmingham said on Thursday.
‘Section 42 of the Constitution requires that a senator make and subscribe the oath or affirmation before taking the senator’s seat in the Senate.
‘A Senator must therefore be sworn in before sitting in the Senate or participating in its proceedings.’
The oath that all Senators take to be sworn into office states: ‘I … do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors according to law.’
On Wednesday Senator Thorpe told the ABC she only recalled swearing allegiance to the Queen’s ‘hairs’ rather than ‘heirs’.
Senator Lidia Thorpe interrupted a parliamentary reception held for King Charles III held on Monday in Canberra
‘If you listen close enough, it wasn’t her ‘heirs’, it was her ‘hairs’ that I was giving my allegiance to and now that they are no longer here, I don’t know where that stands,’ she said.
After the remarks prompted some to question the legality of her position, Senator Thorpe has denied the mispronunciation was deliberate.
The independent Senator told Sky News she ‘spoke what [she] read on the card,’ on which ‘heirs’ was written.
‘Now forgive me… my English grammar isn’t as good as others, and I spoke what I read, so I misspoke,’ she said.
‘So to have this country question, and particularly people like Dutton and other senators from his party, for them to question my legitimacy in this job is an insult.
‘And they can’t get rid of me, so I’ve got another three and a half years, I’m sorry for those who don’t like me, but I’m here to do a job.’
Senator Birmingham has called on the Senate President, WA Labor Senator Sue Lines to look into the matter.
Senator Birmingham compared Thorpe’s oath comments to Irish republican Sinn Fein members elected to the UK parliament who refused a loyalty pledge to the Crown.
Controversy has broken out about Senator Lidia Thorpe should be allowed to sit in the Upper House after she revealed she mispronounced the oath of office
‘Lidia Thorpe is not showing that type of principle,’ Senator Birmingham told The Australian.
‘She wants to try to have it both ways.
‘She’s in the Senate because people voted Greens and that should actually be a warning to Australian voters that if you vote Greens you get this type of extreme senator.’
At Monday’s reception for King Charles and Queen Camilla Senator Thorpe approached the stage wearing a possum-skin cape.
‘You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidalist,’ she shouted as security officers moved to intercept her.
As she was being dragged out of the reception Senator Thorpe yelled: ‘This is not your land. You are not my king. You are not our king.’
ANU’s constitutional law expert Ron Levy said the High Court could potentially decide Thorpe was never qualified to be in the Senate, which could lead to expulsion.
‘She can’t be booted out of parliament for the swearing, for insulting the King,’ he told Nine News.
King Charles (pictured right) sits with Queen Camilla during the reception interrupted by Senator Thorpe
‘However, there may be a court case that may succeed for her non-oath, for her revelation that she didn’t really swear the oath of allegiance.
‘There’s some possibility of the court accepting the claim that she’s not duly sworn in.’
When she took the parliamentary oath of allegiance in August 2022 Senator Thorpe added the words ‘the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth.
Senator Lines interrupted and made Senator Thorpe restart and state the oath as written, which she apparently did while holding up a fist in a ‘black power’ salute.
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