Bob Katter, the long-serving MP for the northern Queensland seat of Kennedy, has refused to swear allegiance to King Charles, his heirs and successors during the opening of parliament.
When asked if he would swear allegiance, Katter responded: “No, I swear allegiance to the Australian people.”
The small protest did not disrupt proceedings, as it did when Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe gave the oath in 2022.
Members are asked to swear faith and allegiance to King Charles III. They are expected to respond “I do”.
Monarchists are so weird lmao
I don’t call myself a monarchist. But I am in favour of someone holding the power to send us to an election if we get a non-functional government. Whoever that is needs to be totally independent of our day-to-day politics and essentially un-bribable.
Right now, that’s the king in England. I’m not against disconnecting from that - but like I said, I don’t know where else you’ll find someone who is outside daily politics in Australia and can’t be bribed to act against our interests. If you have a name, I’m all ears (so is the king! 😆).
If you are proposing we just do away with that, then I’d love to know how you’d deal with an Australian Trump administration. Because 3-4 years of that doesn’t sound fun.
Would there be an issue with that duty falling to the governor-general, perhaps making the position electable to someone who has no party affiliation? Just thinking off the top of my head. Totally expect everyone to point out all the flaws in this idea.