Political enemies join parliament’s first-day love-in. Day two will be a different story

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley sat in the same pew during a dawn ecumenical service for politicians at Canberra’s Wesley Uniting Church and recited, one after the other, the advice of St John: that we should love one another.

Atop Canberra’s Capital Hill, members of parliament from all sides walked through the cleansing smoke of an ancient Indigenous ceremony. Later, the smoke of a ritual 19-gun salute belched from cannons and drifted down towards the city’s lake.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at Parliament House on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Within the great Parliament House, Albanese was moved to something approaching poetry as he responded to the Welcome to Country by Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan.

He invited us all to “look up on a clear night when you are far from city lights, and you will see the dark emu with the Southern Cross shining on its head”.

“When you look at the Southern Cross, look at the star that twinkles most softly,” he said.

This fifth-brightest star, unique to the Australian flag, is Ginan, a name given to it by the Wardaman people of the Northern Territory and formalised in 2018 by the International Astronomical Union.

“To the Wardaman, it represents a red dilly bag filled with special songs of knowledge,” said the prime minister.

“It is an Australian star, a piece of ourselves reflected back at us from our great southern sky.”

These were not the lyrical words you might expect to hear in Australia’s often rambunctious and even brutal parliament.

But then, the arcane rituals of the first day of a new parliament are crafted to reassure Australia’s people that even in the most turbulent world, there remains, at least for a day, respectful homage to democracy stretching back through centuries.

There was the Usher of the Black Rod marching to the House of Representatives – the lower house – to announce that the MPs were required by the governor-general’s representative to attend the Senate – the upper house – for the official opening.

It’s a tradition founded in gore.

In 1642, King Charles I invaded the British House of Commons, took the Speaker’s chair and demanded the surrender of five MPs. The House of Commons, deeply unimpressed, regarded it as a breach of its rights.

Charles later had his head removed. No sovereign, or their vice-regal representative, has since opened a parliament by entering the lower (or people’s) house, known in Australia as the House of Representatives.

Lord only knows what the current King Charles might make of the protest on Tuesday, by Bob Katter, the idiosyncratic Queenslander who, with 32 years under his hat as an MP, rejoices in the title of father of the house.

Katter downright refused to swear allegiance to Charles III, his heirs and successors.

“No,” said Katter, “I swear allegiance to the Australian people.”

The presence of Australia’s oldest peoples in central roles at the parliamentary opening – the Welcome to Country, the smoking ceremony and a performance of traditional dance – was the most striking intimation of an evolving Australian democracy.

When the first Parliament House in Canberra opened in May, 1927, two roughly attired elders, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, were the only Aboriginal people in attendance. Police took exception and told Clements to clear off. The crowd took the side of the old Aboriginal man and he won a spot on the parliamentary steps.

The first Welcome to Country for a new federal parliament, however, took place only 17 years ago, on February 12, 2008, amid much controversy.

The following day, a group of Coalition MPs boycotted then-prime minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to Australia’s Indigenous people, either walking out of the speech or not attending at all.

They were Peter Dutton, Don Randall, Luke Simpkins, Sophie Mirabella, Dennis Jensen, Wilson Tuckey, Alby Schultz and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

None of these people remain in today’s parliament. Dutton, who became the leader of the Coalition and embraced opposition to the referendum for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, lost his seat of Dickson in May’s federal election.

His successor as opposition leader, Ley, took a nuanced response to Aunty Violet’s address.

“May it set the tone as we recommit ourselves to the taking of practical action to improve lives and expand opportunities for Indigenous Australians in every part of our great country,” she said.

The warmth of the day’s events was captured on the floor of the Senate, when two politicians who use wheelchairs to get around were captured embracing by this masthead’s photographer, Dominic Lorrimer.

Member for Dickson Ali France greets Senator Jordon Steele-John with an embrace during the opening of the 48th parliament.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Labor’s Ali France, who replaced Dutton in the Queensland seat of Dickson, lost a leg in an accident and often uses a motorised chair. The Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has cerebral palsy. Politics wafted away as they hugged.

The tumultuous world beyond couldn’t be denied, however.

A crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the lawns outside, demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Albanese government decided it was time to sign a statement formally calling for an end to the war, too, and condemning the “drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children”.

Ley dodged questions on whether she would support the statement.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash was more direct.

“It is disappointing that once again the Albanese government is supporting a statement attacking Israel,” Cash declared.

Politics, we can be assured, will recommence in short order, and Tuesday’s dawn church service will be a memory.

Lest we forget too readily, here are parts of the readings given by the leaders.

Albanese’s was from the First Epistle of St John: “My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.”

And Ley, from the Gospel according to St John: “I give you a new commandment: that you love one another; you also must love one another just as I have loved you.”

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