Aboriginal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has taken a swipe at Lidia Thorpe after she made a Black Power salute and labeled the Queen a “coloniser” in the Senate.
The Greens Senator was preparing to take the parliamentary oath on Monday when she walked to the central table of the chamber with her right fist raised in the air.
She then proceeded to reluctantly recite and tweak the oath of allegiance, which sitting members must take prior to serving the Queen.
“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful, and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, drawing uproar from the Senate.
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Senator Price suggested ministers who do not take the oath “then simply don’t take the job” before criticizing the “immaturity” of Senator Thorpe.
“There is definitely a level of immaturity about that kind of behaviour,” she said, according to The Australian.
“If you want to be a protester, then this isn’t the place for it. Go ahead and join the resistance, but we are there to be legislators for the benefit of our nation.
“I think it is just disruptive behaviour. The majority of us in the Senate today…just saw it as contemporary behaviour.”
During the series of events on Monday, one person could be heard telling the outspoken politician she was “not a Senator if you don’t do it properly.”
Senator Thorpe responded by saying “none of us like it.”
Senate President Sue Lines then interjected and urged Senator Thorpe to “recite the oath as printed on the card.”
She begrudgingly corrected herself the second time and was sworn into parliament.
“Sovereignty never ceded,” Senator Thorpe wrote to Twitter moments later, sharing a photo of herself performing the Black Salute.
Greens leader Adam Bandt showed support for his party member and retweeted the same image with the caption, “Always was. Always will be.”
Senator Pauline Hanson – who walked out of parliament during the Acknowledgment to Country last week – said Senator Thorpe did not take her position “seriously”.
“She’s filling a position she does not respect, to represent people she obviously despises, in an institution she does not recognize as being legitimate,” she told news.com.au.
“What we saw this morning was a stunning exercise in hypocrisy, made worse by her happily taking $211,000 a year from taxpayers for work she clearly does not intend to do.”
Senator Thorpe has previously stated her role as an Indigenous woman was to “infiltrate” the Senate.
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