The Coalition is pushing ahead with plans to challenge Lidia Thorpe’s eligibility to sit in Parliament, despite a leading constitutional scholar stating the firebrand Indigenous Senator’s claim she only pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth’s “hairs” was not grounds for disqualification.
Coalition to push ahead with challenge to Lidia Thorpe’s eligibility to sit in Senate despite Professor Anne Twomey’s scepticism
The Coalition is pushing ahead with plans to challenge Lidia Thorpe’s eligibility to sit in Parliament, despite a leading constitutional scholar stating the firebrand Indigenous Senator’s claim she only pledged allegiance to Queen Elizabeth’s “hairs” was not grounds for disqualification.
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The federal opposition is pushing ahead with plans to challenge Lidia Thorpe’s eligibility to sit in Parliament, despite a leading constitutional lawyer claiming the firebrand Senator’s misspoken oath of allegiance was not grounds for disqualification.
Senator Thorpe said on Wednesday that she did not owe allegiance to King Charles III because she only ever sworn allegiance to Queen Elizabeth’s “hairs” – not her “heirs” – when she was sworn in as a Senator in 2022.
The claims immediately raised questions about her position as a Senator, with shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham saying the former Greens MP’s revelation raised doubts about her eligibility.
“What Lidia Thorpe did in speaking with the ABC yesterday was to claim, to admit, that she had not fulfilled her constitutional obligations to make and subscribe the oath or affirmation in taking her seat in the Senate, that’s what section 42 of the Australian Constitution requires an individual to do,” he said.
“What we see now is a circumstance that creates a doubt over her eligibility and validity to have taken up her seat in the Senate, and that obviously requires some careful analysis and consideration.”
However, earlier on Thursday Sydney University law professor Anne Twomey said that despite her misspoken oath, Senator Thorpe had still signed a written pledge and the High Court was unlikely to take up the issue.
“It’s not one that leads to formal legal consequences such as disqualification,” the leading constitutional scholar said.
“So it’s an internal parliamentary matter. If the Senate decided that she had not validly made an oath, then it could exclude her from sitting… But that would be a matter for the House.”
Despite this, the Coalition is intent on pushing ahead with the matter, albeit through the Parliament rather than the courts.