<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>331655</docID> <postdate>2024-10-24 09:34:21</postdate> <headline>Senator confirms ‘hairs’ oath, after challenging King</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-331515" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241021192203258426-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Lidia Thorpe hurled abuse at King Charles during a parliamentary reception for the monarch.</caption> <p><strong>An indigenous senator who verbally attacked King Charles has shrugged off criticism, saying she's received overwhelming support for her anti-monarchy protest.</strong></p> <p>Lidia Thorpe hurled a volley of abuse at the King during a reception in Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, telling the sovereign he was not king of Australia.</p> <p>"You are not our king. You are not sovereign," she shouted.</p> <p>"You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.</p> <p>"You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty."</p> <p>Asked on Thursday, about the public blowback from her actions, Senator Thorpe said it was "just another day in the colony".</p> <p>"I wanted to send a message to the King, I got that message across. The whole world is talking about it," she told Nine's Today program.</p> <p>"My people are happy because my people have been protesting for decades and decades, as you all know, for exactly this.</p> <p>"So the message has been sent, delivered. Now it's up to the King of England to respond."</p> <p>The senator for Victoria again rejected coalition calls for her to resign from the upper house.</p> <p>She also confirmed that she swore an oath of allegiance to the late Queen's "hairs" rather than her heirs, when taking her seat in 2022.</p> <p>"Swearing allegiance to someone else from another country, whose ancestors have done a lot of damage to my ancestors, I think is completely inappropriate," she said.</p> <p>"I have a Senate seat for the next three and a half years, and I'll be using that to get justice for my people."</p> <p>The federal opposition is examining the senator's eligibility to sit and take part in upper house proceedings under section 42 of the Constitution.</p> <p>"The coalition will explore options and consider legal opinions as to the implications of Senator Thorpe's admission," the coalition's leader in the Senate Simon Birmingham said.</p> <p>Constitutional lawyer Anne Twoomey told AAP on Thursday the words the senator spoke aloud were beside the point because she had also signed a written oath.</p> <p>The opposition is also considering moving a censure motion against Senator Thorpe when the upper house sits again in November.</p> <p>The federal government's leader in the Senate, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, said Senator Thorpe's admission about her oath was "an unusual thing".</p> <p>"I have to say, we're all part of an institution that is the parliament and our democracy, and within that, we have very different views," she told ABC television.</p> <p>However, Senator Wong said Senator Thorpe needed to "reflect on the institution of which she is a part, and how she wishes to play a role in that institution".</p> <p>Senator Thorpe also defended taking a salary for sitting in the Senate, saying "it's paying the rent".</p> <p>"I'm getting paid by the colony to bring up the issues that my people raise with me," she said.</p> <p>Labor Senator Katy Gallagher also said Senator Thorpe needed to consider her position.</p> <p>"We need to work out a way to ensure that the institution of the Senate ... is upheld and respected, and I think that's at times challenged with some behaviour in particular from Senator Thorpe," she told ABC radio.</p> <p>"She also does like the attention that comes from these ... public displays.</p> <p>"We'll work with people across the chamber about what the appropriate response is."</p> </body>