Thorpe ‘breached oath to Crown’: senator

Nationals leader in the Senate Bridget McKenzie has claimed Lidia Thorpe has broken her oath to the crown by yelling at King Charles.

During an official greeting party on Monday, Senator Thorpe marched forward and started shouting at the royals.

“You are not my king,” she yelled before being escorted away.

On Wednesday, Senator McKenzie questioned if the stunt had breached her oath to the Crown.

“Senator Thorpe, I think, is the only parliamentarian that I’ve ever known to disavow their oath of allegiance to our sovereign and their heirs and successors according to law,” Ms McKenzie said on ABC radio.

“So what she did on Monday essentially breached. This is a question I think we actually need to investigate because it’s the first instance I’ve ever actually experienced where a parliamentarian who swore that oath of allegiance has breached that oath of allegiance.”

Ms McKenzie compared Ms Thorpe’s “oath breaking” to an illegal act in a courtroom.

“So if it was happening in a court of law where you breached your oath, that’s contempt, that’s perjury, that’s a criminal offence,” Ms McKenzie said.

“And so I think there are some legitimate questions to be asked about this and what is the consequence of Senator Thorpe’s action from a constitutional perspective,” she said on Wednesday.

It is understood the prospect or any repercussions for breaking the oath would be politically and not legal as a parliamentary oath and an oath in court are different.

Parliament has the power to censure an MP, but not throw them out.

On the same radio show on Tuesday, Ms Thorpe said she yelled at King Charles III for her grandmother, her community and a treaty.

Questioned about the fact she took an oath to the crown when she became a Senator, Ms Thorps said “I don’t assimilate to the colonial structures”.

“I had to do that (swear an oath) to fulfil my duties. And I can guarantee you I did that under duress and we should not be kneeling to the coloniser.”

“My people died fighting for this country and they are the resistance fighters of our people.”

“I will be there for another three years. So get used to truth-telling.”

The Senator said she had written to the King multiple times without response.

“My approach may upset a few people, but how else do you get your message across when we’re continually shut down as black women.”

When the independent Senator was sworn in – as a Greens MP – she walked to the centre of the chamber to recite the oath with her fist in the air.

She called the Queen a coloniser. Other MPs did not like that and Ms Thorpe then repeated the oath as it’s written, all the while keeping her fist raised.

She also pronounced “heirs and successors” as “hairs and successors”, but her seemingly disingenuous effort was allowed.

NIMBYs

The Nationals senate leader has branded the Teal MPs as the “biggest NIMBYs in town”.

Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie made the catchy cry on radio on Wednesday morning.

“I don’t see any greater political move from the Teals than saying, look, can someone else help us solve the housing crisis? Can someone else, can we do that down the road in those peri-urban suburbs out in western Melbourne and western Sydney? Please don’t bring down the cost of my home or those people that vote for me,” Ms McKenzie said.

Even though Ms McKenzie is attacking the Teal MPs’ opposition to apartment blocks in expensive inner-city suburbs, the shadow infrastructure spokeswoman went on to say “most affordable houses that we can build are actually detached housing in those outer suburbs”.

This week the Victorian government announced plans to high-rise apartments in 50 Melbourne areas, close to existing public transport routes as a jolt to the stark lack of affordable houses connected to Melbourne.

With barely an hour’s notice about 100 angry residents turned up at the Premier’s press conference in seaside Brighton on Sunday, one of the areas included in the high-rise scheme.

“I want my children to own their home and that home needs a garden. This is not the answer to the housing crisis,” one resident told media. Brighton has a median house price of $3.25m and $1.28m for units.

The electorate of Teal MP Zoe Daniel covers the leafy suburb; “We need our communities to be part of the solution to this problem, not living in fear of it,” Ms Daniel said on Tuesday.

“The way not to do it is by ­simply announcing a scheme for large, high-density builds without consulting affected communities on how you plan to ensure that there will be the schools, roads, medical care and other resources required to service a growing community,” she said.

Teal MP Monique Ryan’s seat of Kooyong is tipped for nine of the initial 25 development zones. Dr Ryan said infrastructure, particularly the completed removal of level crossings, did not actually make suburbs in her seat ripe for big new apartment blocks.

Those comments sparked Ms McKenzie to get on the offensive and label the Teal MPs the “biggest NIMBYs in town” on Wednesday.

Federal Labor and Opposition MPs are out in force at development sites this week, as the election will be held in the next six or seven months.

On Wednesday Ms McKenzie contended the Opposition plan to build more houses would be more effective by encouraging the private sector more so than Labor, despite the Opposition’s housing plan having a lower sticker value.

The offices of Ms Daniel and Dr Ryan have been approached for comment.