Crocs in the chamber? Politicians test boundaries of parliamentary dress code

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell is one of Victoria’s upper house MPs who openly admits to deliberately testing the boundaries of what a politician should wear.

Purcell has been spotted in the chamber – with its red velvet seats, marble pillars and gold trimmings – wearing a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit T-shirt and purple Crocs.

Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell.Credit: Eddie Jim

The crossbencher is the latest in a long line of politicians challenging the dress code of the day.

When former Springvale MP Eddie Micallef refused to wear a tie in parliament in the 1980s, citing a desire to lean into his working-class Maltese roots, he was ridiculed by the Liberal opposition and even those in his own ranks for flouting long-standing dress codes.

After Victoria’s first female premier, Joan Kirner, lost the 1992 election to Jeff Kennett, she even wrote to the maverick Labor MP demanding he turn up to the opening of the new parliament wearing a tie or else he would be “dealt with”.

Fast-forward 30 years, and a handful of state MPs of different political persuasions are ditching their collared shirts, voting in their activewear and wearing foam shoes in the chamber without being pulled into line.

But is the Victorian parliament genuinely moving with the times, or are those adjudicating turning a blind eye so as not to give a platform to those with a tendency for rule-bending?

The state’s most unconventionally dressed politicians can be found in Victoria’s upper house. This is partly because the premier and opposition leader sit in a different chamber, meaning the cut and thrust of Legislative Council question time is rarely televised.

For the uninitiated, Crocs are a casual clog-like shoe made of foam. They were initially sold as a boating shoe, but have since become popular with young people all over the world because they are comfortable and can be customised with pins and badges.

Purple Crocs are a far cry from the black robes, barrister wigs and silver-buckled shoes parliamentary officials were forced to wear until 2002. Under today’s standing orders, business attire is still technically required, meaning T-shirts and casual shoes could breach parliamentary rules in either chamber.

“I’ve obviously pushed the boundaries a little bit in what I wear,” Purcell said last week. “Politics doesn’t have to be boring, or men wearing grey suits all saying the same thing. Judge us on the way we do our jobs, not just the way we dress.”

Fellow first-term MP Aiv Puglielli, from the Greens, also prefers to dress down to signal to younger voters that he’s there to prosecute their key issues. He often appears in parliament without a collared shirt or tie, speaking in favour of rental freezes or a pill testing trial.

“How can we expect young people to have faith in politics when they don’t see themselves represented?” Puglielli asks.

Upper house Liberal MP Nick McGowan tends not to wear a suit jacket in the chamber and was even spotted without a tie, albeit with a collared shirt on, during the final sitting week before the autumn break. McGowan says he eschews jackets because he’s more of a “tracksuit pants and T-shirt kinda guy” in the real world.

“But I know that [parliamentary outfit] would impress no one on this earth,” he said.

The Liberal MP was quick to add, though, that he has no problem with colleagues dressing down a little: “It bodes well for all of parliament when we have people who reflect their backgrounds and constituents.”

Not everyone in parliament takes such a relaxed view. One upper house MP from the government benches, who declined to be named, said: “There should be a standard. You want to portray to people you’re doing serious work making laws.”

This might be why two of Labor’s most colourfully dressed MPs – Lee Tarlamis and Sonja Terpstra – have a habit of dressing creatively but haven’t done away with blazers. Terpstra has been spotted wearing cowgirl boots and white runners in the chamber, while Tarlamis has bright orange and purple suits among his collection, all made by his wife. Both MPs declined to comment for this article.

Asked why he hadn’t enforced a stricter dress code, Legislative Council president Shaun Leane said it was because, in his view, a relaxed environment created a “better atmosphere for MPs to do their job”.

“If someone’s advocating for a new school or an improvement to a hospital, those stakeholders that are invested in that, I don’t think they’re too fussed on what type of shoe wear that particular advocate is wearing,” Leane said.

However, MPs in the upper house aren’t the only ones raising eyebrows inside parliament’s hallowed halls. The Sunday Age spoke to two Coalition MPs who said they were aware of a woman in their ranks who had received an internal complaint relating to her fashion choices.

The MPs, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, believed the complaint – an internal caucus matter and not dealt with by the Speaker’s office – related to the wearing of a sleeveless dress in the chamber.

But a spokesperson for Legislative Assembly speaker Maree Edwards said there were no specific rules around women’s clothing and that sleeveless dresses were fine, particularly on hot days.

“The standard of dress in the chamber is a matter for the individual judgment of each member, although ultimate discretion rests with the Speaker. It is a custom for members to wear business attire in the chamber.”

Asked if it was OK for men to start wearing T-shirts in the chamber on hot days, even if they had a blazer over the top, the spokesperson declined to comment. The definition of business attire, at least in the lower house, appears to have its limits.

So what does Micallef think, all these years after Kirner sent him that blistering note, of upper house MPs getting away with Crocs and T-shirts?

“It’s a different world.”

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