The Royal visit to Australia this past week stirred up controversy due to Senator Lidia Thorpe yelled at King Charles III during his visit to Canberra this week. After people called for Thorpe’s resignation, the senator said she deliberately said “Queen’s hairs” instead of “Queen’s heirs” during her swearing-in ceremony in 2022 – now, Parliament is debating on how to proceed.
Thorpe shouted “Give us our land back, give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” and “You are not my King.”
Some other Senators have found Thorpe’s comments “disrespectful,” and Karl Stefanovic even called Lidia Thorpe the “most loathed woman in parliament” in an interview with the senator this morning.
Senator Thorpe, no stranger to political controversy, said in the interview that, “I’m about truth telling. I’m loud, proud, black. Get used to it and listen to what I have to say.’’
Royal Controversy
Lidia Thorpe claims loophole with saying ‘Queen’s hairs’, not ‘heirs’
However, a new controversy has arisen. Thorpe came out publicly to say that while she was swearing her oath to receive her seat in Parliament, she deliberately said “Queen’s hairs” instead of “Queen’s heirs” during her swearing-in ceremony in 2022. Now Parliament is debating on how to proceed.
“If you listen close enough, it was ‘her hairs’, not ‘her heirs’ that I was giving my allegiance to and now that they are no longer here, I don’t know where that stands. I’m not giving up my job, I’m not resigning,” Thorpe told ABC TV on Wednesday.
According to one constitutional law expert, the problem with Thorpe’s defence is her written oath, that supersedes any accidental or purposeful mispronunciation.
Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey told ABC TV that “mispronunciation is not in itself legally invalidating,” as Thorpe has “actually made that oath in writing,” therefore any challenge to Thorpe’s eligibility to continue sitting in Parliament cannot proceed in court.
‘Unusual Thing To Say’
Politicians have been debating back and forth ever since Lidia Thorpe made the comment.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek questioned Thorpe’s motivations for staying in Parliament on Sky News this morning. “If you get elected and then, particularly in this case, where Senator Thorpe seems to see our democratic institutions as so profoundly flawed, I don’t know why you would stay,” Plibersek said.
“The whole thing really reminds me of when you say to kids, ‘Why did you break that promise?’ and then they say they had their fingers crossed behind their back,” Plibersek said.
“Look, um, it was an unusual thing for her to come out and say, I have to say,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong.
“You know, we’re all part of an institution: the parliament and our democracy, and within that, we have very different views. I don’t share many views with some of the people on the other side of the parliament, but we are all part of the same institution, a very important institution in our democracy, and that is the Australian parliament,” Wong continued.
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