Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has amended her previous statement claiming to have intentionally blundered the oath of allegiance she recited when she was sworn into parliament.
It’s been a whirlwind few days for Thorpe, who made international headlines and is facing calls from Opposition leader Peter Dutton to resign for her controversial act of protest against King Charles at Parliament House on Monday.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie questioned whether her actions contradicted the parliamentary oath she swore, which was: “I … do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors according to law.”
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Thorpe, in response, she said she didn’t remember swearing allegiance to the monarch and instead swore to the queen’s “hairs” rather than “heirs”.
”If you listen close enough, it wasn’t her ‘heirs’, it was her ‘hairs’ that I was giving my allegiance to and now that they are no longer here, I don’t know where that stands,” she told the ABC yesterday.
The Parliament of Australian states that each member must make the oath before taking their seat.
Now, Thorpe has backtracked when she was asked whether her admission meant she was ineligible to sit in parliament.
”I spoke what I read on the card,” she told Sky News this afternoon.
“Forgive me for not being, my English grammar isn’t as good as others and I spoke what I read so I misspoke.
“And to have this country question, particularly people like Dutton and other Senators from his party, for them to question my legitimacy in this job is an insult.”
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Currently, Opposition leader in the Senate Simon Birmingham is seeking legal opinion to determine whether there are any repercussions to Thorpe’s oath bungle.
Australian National University’s constitutional law expert Ron Levy said the High Court could potentially decide Thorpe was never qualified to be in the Senate.
If she is found to have never been qualified, she may be expelled.
“She can’t be booted out of parliament for the swearing, for insulting the King,” he told 9News.com.au.
“However, there may be a court case that may succeed for her non-oath, for her revelation that she didn’t really swear the oath of allegiance.
“There’s some possibility of the court accepting the claim that she’s not duly sworn in.”
Thorpe has maintained that she will not resign despite her colleagues from both Labor and the Opposition condemning her actions and comments this week.
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