Thorpe’s ‘coloniser’ Queen oath out of order as former leaders find backbench

Parliament is dealing with some heavy questions about Australia’s history and traditions but no one expected to debate whether the Queen was a coloniser during what should have been a routine bit of administration.

The handful of politicians who weren’t able to make it to Canberra last week for the opening of parliament were sworn in on Monday.

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe stands with her fist raised in the air as she is sworn in to the new Senate.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, had to have two tries at her oath after initially referring to the “colonising” Queen.

Clad in black, Thorpe approached the centre of the Senate chamber with her fist raised in the air to make the affirmation of allegiance.

“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 the Second …” she started, straying somewhat from the card the clerk was holding for her.

“You’re not a senator if you don’t say it,” one of the others in the chamber called out, before President Sue Lines pulled up Thorpe and told her she was required to recite the oath exactly as printed. She did so, but the sarcasm was obvious to all.

Ahead of her first swearing in, in October 2020, Thorpe said her community wasn’t excited about that moment because she would be “swearing allegiance to the coloniser”.

Over the weekend, Assistant Minister for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite said it was “archaic and ridiculous” that MPs had to pledge to serve the British royal family, particularly given they had to renounce any foreign citizenships to run for parliament in the first place.

Indigenous recognition and reconciliation are high on the government’s agenda, after a weekend dominated by talk about the Uluru Statement from the Heart and enshrining its proposed Voice in the constitution.

Thorpe believes pursuing the Voice first is backwards, preferring instead to pursue a treaty and truth-telling initially.

In the lower house, there were no hitches in the swearing-in of erstwhile prime minister Scott Morrison and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

Former Coalition leaders Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison, along with Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, take the oath in the lower house.Credit: James Brickwood

The microphone of the dispatch box where Morrison held forth during the previous term of parliament picked up his declaration, “So help me God,” and the member for Cook wandered off to shake hands with some of his close supporters, including Melissa McIntosh and Gavin Pearce, who have now been promoted to the outer shadow ministry.

Morrison was absent last week to attend a conference of conservative former leaders in Japan.

During question time, Morrison chatted with his right-hand man in the NSW division of the Liberal Party, Alex Hawke, both now seated in the blind spot of the chamber out of view of much of the press gallery.

Joyce, who returns to parliament after the death of his father last week, slumped on the frontbench.

Meanwhile, the literary references continued to flow in the first speeches as MPs introduced themselves and their priorities to the parliament.

Last week, independent MP Monique Ryan quoted Albus Dumbledore; on Monday, member of Mackellar Sophie Scamps turned to another fantasy classic to quote Gandalf from Lord of the Rings on her decision to run for parliament.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to,” Scamps said.

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