Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is in the news again. As usual this is for all the wrong reasons.
This time she caused a disturbance in Parliament House. She yelled at the King and renounced her oath of allegiance.
The video below shows her taking the oath of allegiance in 2022. She inserted words on her first attempt and was made to repeat it. This was widely reported in the media. Her deliberate mispronunciation of words on her second attempt was largely ignored at the time but has become important in recent days.
Recently Thorpe reminded everyone that she actually swore an oath to Queen Elizabeth’s hairs, not heirs. She couldn’t have renounced her oath of allegiance because she never made it in the first place – or so her argument goes.
Apparently it never occurred to her that this would mean that she’s sitting in parliament illegally. We think this was immediately obvious to everyone else.
Now she’s retracted the claim that she deliberately mispronounced parts of the oath. A mental giant Thorpe is not.
This isn’t about whether Australia should become a republic or remain a constitutional monarchy. It’s about having competent politicians.
