Senator Clearly Faked Allegiance to the Monarchy

So we know Senator Lidia Thorpe doesn’t like the King or the monarchy, she made that very clear the other day. “You are not my king! F**k the colony!”, she shouted. She’s kind of lucky she lives under British rule, because if she tried this sort of thing in many other countries, she’d be imprisoned, or worse. But this raises an important point. In order to become a senator, one must swear allegiance to the reigning monarch and all of their successors. It says so in the Constitution, section 42. “Oath or affirmation of allegiance. Every senator… shall before taking his seat make and subscribe… an oath or affirmation of allegiance in the form set forth in the schedule”, which states, “I… do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Her heirs and successors according to law.” Failure to make this allegiance, simply put, you cannot become a senator.

Just to be clear, obviously, I’m not trying to say that Senator Thorpe is representative of all Aboriginal people, or that all Aboriginal people agree with her ways. Just as it would be foolish to say that every white person agrees with Albo. My comments in this presentation are only about Senator Thorpe. It would be unfair of any of us to suggest that all Aboriginal people agree with her.

A couple of days ago, the ABC interviewed Senator Thorpe talking about the recent goings-on, where she stated, “I swore allegiance to the Queen’s ‘hairs’. 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’re no longer here, I don’t know where that stands.” So essentially, she’s claiming that her affirmation of allegiance was not valid. Later in the interview, she said, “It’s no secret, I don’t like the colony. I don’t like the king and what he represents, and I don’t like the fact that I have to swear to an oppressor to do my job to get justice for my people.” Okay, that’s fine. She doesn’t have to like it. But under the constitution of this country, in order to become a senator, you have to swear allegiance. If you don’t, well don’t become a senator. Although there is news now claiming that Senator Thorpe didn’t intentionally say ‘hairs’, but rather she misspoke due to grammatical error.

But I would argue that she never swore allegiance to the monarchy. Back in 2022 when she was making her affirmation in Parliament, she said, “I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II…”, and then after being forced to repeat it correctly, she said, “I, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Her ‘hairs’ and successors according to law.” And this was allowed to go through. She was obviously being sarcastic throughout the entire thing. She was obviously making fun of the process, and she obviously didn’t mean a word she said. How is she a senator?

Imagine if Anthony Albanese did this sort of thing during his swearing in as Prime Minister, making fun of the process. Changing the words. We wouldn’t accept it. He’d surely be booted out by his own party and a new PM would be found post-haste. Or what if the Opposition Leader played these sort of games? He’d lose his job, wouldn’t he, or at least, lose his leadership position. But for Senator Thorpe, everyone just seems to let it slide. We either have these rules and laws, which we all abide by, or we don’t. But we shouldn’t allow this mucking about with constitutional requirements.

I get it, Senator Thorpe does not like this system. She told the ABC, “The colonial system is is all about shutting black women down in this country. They’ve got a very good track record of that. I’m a black woman, so of course the Parliament and its racist ways will try to shut me down for speaking truth. It’s been happening for over 200 years. If they try to shut me down, well I’ve got International exposure. I’ve got International allies, and I will keep them briefed on this Parliament and any other Senator or politician that wants to shut me down.” It sounds like a threat, doesn’t it?

Look, Senator Thorpe is free to believe whatever she wants to, and obviously she’s got people who agree with her, and people who don’t. But if she doesn’t want to obey these rules, if she doesn’t want to swear allegiance to the colonising King, well the answer is simple… Don’t be a senator.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn