An indigenous activist who will soon be a senator has declared she doesn’t identify as Australian because of the nation’s colonial past – which could potentially disqualify her from sitting in Parliament.
Lidia Thorpe, who lost her seat at the 2018 Victorian election after only a year as a state MP, has been chosen by the Greens party faithful to replace former leader Richard Di Natale in federal Parliament.
The first indigenous woman elected to the Victorian Parliament last year declared to Harry Potter actress Mariam Margoyles she didn’t regard herself as Australian.
‘I don’t identify as being Australian. It’s a concept that’s been imposed on our people since we’re invaded,’ she told the Almost Australian documentary, which aired last month on the ABC.
‘The colonisers came and set up the colony which they now call Australia.’
Australia’s leading constitutional experts said Ms Thorpe would not be allowed to sit in federal Parliament if she refused to pledge allegiance to Australia’s head of state, the Queen.
Lidia Thorpe, who lost her seat at the 2018 Victorian election after only a year as a state MP, has been chosen by the Greens party faithful to replace former leader Richard Di Natale in federal Parliament
Ms Thorpe’s declaration that she doesn’t identify as Australian could put her at odds with the requirement for new members of federal Parliament to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen, through her representative in Australia Governor-General David Hurley.
‘Every senator and every member of the House of Representatives shall before taking his seat make and subscribe before the Governor-General, or some person authorised by him, an oath or affirmation of allegiance in the form set forth in the schedule to this Constitution,’ the Parliament House website said.
The Australian Constitution, ratified by the UK Parliament in 1900, also requires MPs to swear an oath or affirmation to the Queen ‘her heirs and successors according to law’.
Professor Anne Twomey, an expert on constitutional law from the University of Sydney, said Ms Thorpe would not be allowed to take her place as a senator if she refused to swear an oath or affirmation to the Queen.
‘If the person chosen as a senator refuses to do so, then he or she could not take his or her seat (i.e he or she could not sit and vote in Parliament),’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
Professor Twomey said Ms Thorpe could not pledge an alternative allegiance to Australia’s traditional indigenous owners unless Section 42 of the Constitution was amended by a popular vote.
The first indigenous woman elected to the Victorian Parliament last year declared to Harry Potter actress Mariam Margoyles she didn’t regard herself as Australian. Lidia Thorpe is pictured on the Almost Australian documentary which aired last month on the ABC
‘It can’t be changed (except for the updating of the relevant monarch) without a referendum,’ she said.
Professor George Williams, the dean of law at the University of New South Wales, concurred Ms Thorpe could not sit in Parliament if she refused to pledge allegiance to the Queen.
In the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, Sinn Fein members have been elected to represent areas of Northern Ireland but have declined to take their seats in Parliament.
Ms Thorpe isn’t particular keen on Australia’s royal British past, using the Black Live Matter protests to call for Victoria and Queensland to be named because these state monikers honour 19th British monarch Queen Victoria.
‘Maybe that’s something they (the Queensland government) could negotiate (in a treaty),’ she said.
Australia’s leading constitutional experts said Ms Thorpe (pictured as a Northcote Greens by-election candidate in November 2017) would not be allowed to sit in federal Parliament if she refused to pledge allegiance to the Queen
‘Given we’re all talking about the colonial past and how everything’s named as a result of invasion of this country, why wouldn’t we negotiate that (name changes)?
‘It may be that it stays the same. But why wouldn’t we put that on the table.
‘Maybe we need to be making decisions, changing place names, state names and anything else that causes harm.’
As member of the Victorian parliament in 2018, months before losing her left-leaning electorate, she called for Australia Day to be moved from January 26.
As member of the Victorian parliament in 2018, months before losing her left-leaning electorate, she called for Australia Day to be moved from January 26
‘This day is a day of mourning for Aboriginal people. It marks the invasion of this country and the beginning of massacres, the frontier wars and my people being removed from their land, stripped of their honour and culture and forced to live in prison camps,’ she said.
She also called for flags to be flown at half-mast on Australia’s national day, and for more taxpayer resources to be dedicated towards buying more Aboriginal flags for electorate offices.
‘Please ensure electorate offices are provided with an adequate supply of Aboriginal flags as a standing policy,’ she said.
Ms Thorpe in 2017 became the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian Parliament when she won the inner-Melbourne seat of Northcote at a by-election following the death of former Labor minister Fiona Richardson.
Ms Thorpe in 2017 became the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian Parliament when she won the inner-Melbourne seat of Northcote at a by-election following the death of former Labor minister Fiona Richardson. She is pictured wearing a possum skin delivering her maiden speech
Little more than a year later, she lost her seat at the 2018 general election, which was one suburb outside federal Greens leader Adam Bandt’s Melbourne electorate.
She won’t be the first senator to have previously lost a seat in a state parliament.
Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt lost his northern Brisbane seat of Everton in 2012, after just one term in the Legislative Assembly, only to win his Senate seat in 2016 at the top of the ALP ticket.
Northern Territory Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy, who is indigenous, lost her outback NT Legislative Assembly seat of Arnhem in 2012 with a 30 per cent swing against her.
Little more than a year later, she lost her seat at the 2018 general election, which was one suburb outside federal Greens leader Adam Bandt’s Melbourne electorate
The former NT minister and Darwin ABC newsreader was elected to the Senate in 2016, replacing Olympian Nova Peris, the first indigenous woman in the Australian Parliament.
When Ms Thorpe is sworn into the Senate, she will be an indigenous lawmaker in the same Parliament as Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt and Labor frontbencher Linda Burney.
To get there, her nomination to fill Senator Di Natale’s casual vacancy will have to be ratified by the Parliament of Victoria.
Members of federal Parliament from both sides of politics have pledged allegiance to the Queen despite favouring constitutional change to turn Australia from a constitutional monarchy into a republic.
A referendum for a republic was lost in November 1999, with the ‘yes’ case receiving just 45 per cent of the popular quote, and failing to win a majority in any state or territory outside of the Australian Capital Territory.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Thorpe for a comment via the Victorian Greens and Mr Bandt’s office.