“Mr Dick intones something that, if you listen closely, can make your hair stand on end,” bemoans “The Gadfly” columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.

UPON taking the speaker’s chair each sitting day, Milton Dick, the Labor MP for Oxley, makes the following declaration: 

“I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area and pay respect to the elders, past and present, of all Australia’s indigenous peoples.”

It’s a 2010 addition to the opening House of Representatives’ ritual and quite a nice idea. Trouble is, since the debate about the Voice to Parliament, it’s obvious that many of Mr Speaker’s fellow MPs – yes, I’m looking at you Peter Dutton and David Littleproud – don’t share his sentiments. 

It’s a rite that’s supposed to make us feel good, but if it doesn’t reflect our MPs’ true sympathies, it debases the notion to a silly fiction and makes a mockery of the parliament. 

But that’s just the beginning of the daily recitation. Mr Dick then intones something that, if you listen closely, can make your hair stand on end. 

He addresses an imaginary entity he calls “Almighty God”, and he “humbly beseeches” said entity “to vouchsafe Thy blessing upon this parliament. Direct and prosper our deliberations to the advancement of thy glory, and the true welfare of the people of Australia”.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Mr Dick had lost his marbles. So who is this virtual entity and why should it be bothered with the joint Matthew Flinders christened long before the Aboriginal people even heard of its existence. 

Yes, I know it’s a version of the Christian “Lord’s Prayer” and there are shaky claims that it was “written” (in the unlikely event that he could write Greek) by the figure they call Jesus. 

It found its way into the parliamentary ritual, I discovered, when researching “The Big Fella – the BHP Story”, which I wrote with Peter Thompson in 2009. It was introduced in 1901 by the first member for Kooyong, a certain William Knox, the former BHP accountant. 

At the time, parliament had just passed the White Australia Policy thus alienating the Aboriginal people from the land they had occupied for roughly 60,000 years. So it undoubtedly reflected the views of the electors. And since paternalism was all the go, they were perfectly happy for the speaker to address the entity as, “Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”. 

“Thy kingdom come,” Mr Speaker continues. “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven!” So, no need for an ICAC in those days. The socialists are not forgotten, as Mr Speaker says: “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” 

Forgiving trespasses has never been Peter Dutton’s favoured policy since he became a police cadet straight out of high school and a Liberal candidate at 19, but Mr Dick has already moved on. 

“Lead us not into temptation,” he demands (respectfully), “but deliver us from evil.” And in anticipation of a lordly nod, he wraps it up with the diplomatic niceties: “For thine is the kingdom,” he cries, “and the power and the glory, for ever and ever, amen.” Okay, now it’s on with business as usual. 

But wait a minute. Doesn’t the ritual offend the very basis of our democratic system which requires the clear separation of Church and State? And why exclusively Christian? What of all the other churches, mosques and temples? What of the third of us who mark “no religion” on the census form?

Not good enough Mr Dick. Malcolm Fraser changed the national anthem. Perhaps it’s time for a nationwide competition for a new mission statement – one that not only inspires the parliamentarians but reflects the aspirations of the community they serve. What do you say, Albo?

robert@robertmacklin.com