Greens senator Lidia Thorpe’s Queen gambit backfires

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price slams fellow First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe over ‘coloniser’ protest, saying Parliament is not the place for such ‘contemptuous behaviour’.

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe raises her arm in a black-power salute during her swearing-in ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday. Picture: AAP

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has been forced to retake the affirmation of allegiance after the radical upper house MP derided the Queen as a “coloniser” and raised her fist in protest on the floor of parliament.

Arm raised in a black power salute as she walked down to the front of the Senate chamber, the First Nations woman could not – on first attempt – bring herself to affirm her allegiance to the crown, a requirement under section 42 of the Constitution.

She instead tried to change the wording, vowing to remain faithful and bear true allegiance to the “colonising” Queen, Elizabeth II.

The deviation from tradition was met with groans of exasperation from her upper house colleagues, who condemned her “immaturity”.

Senate president Sue Lines immediately ordered Senator Thorpe to correctly recite the -affirmation.

“None of us likes it,” Senator Thorpe replied, explaining her unwillingness to utter the words.

Senator Thorpe has previously described herself as an “infiltrator” in parliament and said she is uncomfortable with working in what she calls a “colonial project”.

Her display on Monday left many asking why Senator Thorpe wanted a seat in parliament at all.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a fellow First Nations senator for the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, said if people didn’t want to take the oath, “then simply don’t take the job”.

“There is definitely a level of immaturity about that kind of behaviour. If you want to be a -protester, then this isn’t the place for it. Go ahead and join the resistance, but we are there to be legislators for the benefit of our nation.

“I think it is just disruptive behaviour.

“The majority of us in the Senate today … just saw it as contemptuous behaviour.”

The leader of the opposition in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, also said Senator Thorpe’s conduct was “unnecessary and disrespectful and more likely to alienate than attract supporters to her cause”.

“As senators, we all have a unique opportunity to pursue change but should respect the -institutions through which we seek that change while arguing for it.”

When she recited the affirmation a second time, Senator Thorpe did so in a sarcastic, mocking tone.

Greens leader Adam Bandt revelled in the attention his First Nations spokeswoman had attracted, retweeting a photo of her with her fist raised on the Senate floor. “Always was. Always will be,” Mr Bandt posted.

It is not the first time Senator Thorpe has called the Queen a coloniser.

She has also criticised the Australian flag, which she said represented “dispossession, massacre and genocide”.

“I understand that there’ll be people of all persuasions that don’t support this stance, but we need to ensure that if we’re going to have a flag, then it must represent everybody,” Senator Thorpe has told the ABC.

Senator Thorpe’s performance followed One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s protest last week when she walked out of the upper house during the acknowledgment to country.

The One Nation senator said she had been angered by the acknowledgment for years, but was “tipped over” the edge after seeing a motion on the Senate notice paper that would place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags in the chamber.