The opposition Senate leader has flagged the possibility of new penalties for senators who engage in “disorderly conduct” beyond the chamber itself, after independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s shouted protest at a parliamentary reception for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Simon Birmingham suggests parliamentary censure is an insufficient response to deter future protests and that new measures could be required. A civil disobedience expert, however, has raised questions as to whether such further measures were necessary or “appropriate”.
“The Senate may need to consider more effective procedures or standing orders to reduce the risk of disorderly conduct in the future, otherwise we might find visiting leaders giving our parliament a wide berth,” Birmingham told Guardian Australia.
The Liberal senator pointed to two other past protests by parliamentarians against visiting foreign leaders involving then Greens senators Janet Rice, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle. He noted the protesters in all three incidents were senators – but while each was inside Parliament House, none was in the Senate chamber itself.
That put the protesting senators beyond the reach of existing punitive measures other than a censure, which carries no penalty beyond rebuke.
In February this year, Rice held up a placard that read “Stop the human rights abuses” during an address by the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr to a joint meeting of both houses of parliament.
In 2003, Brown and Nettle shouted at the then US president, George W Bush, also during an address to the combined houses. Addresses by visiting leaders are held in the House of Representatives, meaning senators are there as guests.
As King Charles concluded his speech at the reception in his honour in parliament’s Great Hall on Monday, Thorpe, who is a Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman, approached the stage yelling that he was “not our king” and “not sovereign” and demanding a treaty with Indigenous Australians.
The government is understood to be considering what action could or should be taken against Thorpe in response to the protest but has not made a decision because the Senate is not sitting again for a month.
Birmingham said the Senate could not ignore Thorpe’s actions.
“The challenge lies in finding a response that is more a penalty than simply another opportunity for her to grandstand,” he said.
“This incident, together with others by former senators … create a risk that visiting leaders will wonder whether speaking in the Australian parliament has too high a potential for embarrassment.”
On Tuesday, Birmingham said Thorpe “would probably revel in being censured”.
“We’ve got to think carefully about how we respond to this in ways that try to prevent such behaviour in the future.”
Dr Piero Moraro, a civil disobedience expert and criminal justice lecturer at Edith Cowan University, urged against increasing the existing sanctions in response to Thorpe’s protest.
“If the Senate thinks it is inappropriate for a senator to behave in the way she has behaved, then I suppose that a censure could be the right thing,” Moraro said. “But I wouldn’t think it would be appropriate to introduce further measures.”
He described Thorpe’s protest as “quite brave”.
“Personally, I think she did something admirable, not something contemptible,” he said.
Moraro disagreed with the suggestion that more severe sanctions were required to prevent similar incidents.
“In the current environment in which public protest is punished so harshly in the streets, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an attempt at targeting dissent also within the parliament,” he said. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”
Thorpe remains unrepentant about her protest and said she had been inundated with supportive messages.
“I don’t listen to the noise of those who have chosen to assimilate into the colonial system,” she told ABC TV on Wednesday. “That’s their decision. I’ve decided to be a Blak sovereign woman and continue our fight against the colony and for justice for our people.”
She ended the interview with a declaration.
“This is a revolution, and there’s lots more to come.”
