Thorpe now says reading ‘hairs’ in her senatorial affirmation was a misspeak
Karen Middleton
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has backtracked on her suggestion that she deliberately mispronounced “heirs” as “hairs” when she was sworn in as a senator, insisting she misspoke because her “English grammar isn’t as good as others”.
In an interview with Sky News, Thorpe said it was “an insult” for the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and others in the Coalition to question her legitimacy as a senator when she had simply mispronounced the word “heirs”.
I spoke what I read on the card. Now, forgive me for not being – you know, my English grammar isn’t as good as others and I spoke what I read. So I misspoke, and to have this country question – or particularly people like Dutton and other senators from his party – for them to question my legitimacy in this job is, is an insult. And they can’t get rid of me.
The comments appear to contradict what Thorpe said yesterday when she was asked whether the remarks she shouted at King Charles III during a parliamentary reception for him on Monday amounted to renouncing her affirmation. She had told ABC TV:
I swore allegiance to the Queen’s hairs. If you listen close enough, it wasn’t her heirs, it was her hairs that I was giving my allegiance to. And now that, you know, they’re not no longer here, I don’t know where that stands.
But today, she insisted she had simply misspoken and to her “it said ‘hairs’.”
Well, it starts with a ‘h’. So, you know, I was reading from the card. I signed the card. I was accepted into the parliament to fullfil my role as a senator. I’ve done a lot of good for this country that people don’t talk about.
Thorpe suggested criticisms of her were motivated by dislike and said:
I’m sorry for those that don’t like me but I am here to do a job, and that is to get justice for my people, but also to bring this nation together.
Key events
Tasmanian ferry fiasco sinks further as new berth years overdue
The start date for two new larger Bass Strait ferries has been pushed further back, AAP reports, with vital berth upgrades several years behind an already delayed schedule.
Cost blowouts, finger pointing between state-owned companies and slow infrastructure builds have plagued the delivery of the $900m-plus replacement Spirit of Tasmania vessels.
Tasmania’s government today announced a new terminal in Devonport, needed for the vessels to berth, would not be ready until February 2027. That is more than two years behind the initial schedule and about 12 months later than the most recent estimate.
In a best-case scenario, the berth could be ready by October 2026, the premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said.
The first ship is set to arrive in Tasmania from Finland in coming weeks, with Rockliff saying the vessel would probably be leased out until the new berth is ready, as the Devonport upgrades will not be ready in time.
A proposal to modify an existing berth in Devonport to allow the vessels to begin work before the new berth is finished has been scrapped over safety concerns.
The state government will also explore leasing the second new ferry, which is expected to be delivered by the second half of 2025. If leasing does not deliver financial benefits, a “cost-effective, medium-term” storage option in Tasmania will be explored.
Read: Lidia Thorpe’s 2023 letter to King Charles
As we flagged earlier, independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s office has released a copy of the letter she sent to King Charles in 2023, requesting a meeting to discuss the potential of treaty between the Crown and First Nations people.
Thorpe made international headlines on Monday when she protested the king at his parliamentary reception in Canberra. She later stated she had attempted to hand him “a notice of complicity in the genocide of the First Peoples of this county”, and that requests to meet with him had been ignored.
You can read the full letter from Thorpe to the king, dated 7 March 2023, below:
Cait Kelly
Afca head says people making sacrifices and doing ‘their utmost’ to maintain mortgage payments
Back in the lending inquiry in Canberra, the chief ombudsman and CEO of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, David Locke, has been talking.
Locke said they receive around 60,000 financial complaints each year – and they’ve seen an 18% increase period up to 30 June. He said the largest product area for financial difficulties was mortgages, at 30%.
Locke said people were taking out other credit to be able to cover their home loans:
What we’re seeing is people are doing their utmost to maintain their mortgage payments. They’re sacrificing other things, and they’re taking out other forms of credit in order to be able to manage the mortgage payments.
We’ve seen increases, for example, in complaints about buying now pay later, about unsecured lending, and a whole range of other areas, even around credit references. All of these are indicators of stress in the market and indicators that people are seeking other forms of credit and trying to maintain home loans.
He said previously when people would lose their homes, they would go into the private rental market, but with rents so high some cannot afford to do that.
They’re so desperate to maintain the property because they cannot see an alternative route for accommodation. Although it may be anecdotal, it is based upon 1000s of cases that we handle each year.
Rafqa Touma
‘This shouldn’t have happened’: NSW premier on far west blackout
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and Barwon MP, Roy Butler, spoke to reporters in Broken Hill a short while ago. The premier acknowledged “some dispute” about when the region’s other backup power generator stopped being operational (see earlier post). He said:
We’re now in a situation where this shouldn’t have happened. We need to be very clear about this. Under the contract for electricity supply via Transgrid and other electricity utilities in NSW, power supply must be guaranteed and redundancy or backup power must be part of that deal.
These companies make an enormous amount of money off the back of their customers in NSW. Their responsibility is to provide not just mains power, but also backup power.
And I know there’s been some dispute about whether the gas generators were ready, or knocked out of action late last year or six months ago or three weeks ago or two weeks ago. The bottom line here is that there should have been no interruption in supply after we had that weather event late last week.
And we’re now seeing many members of the community, many small businesses, the hospital, essential services, that have been severely impacted.
Australian shares edge higher for second day
AAP is reporting that the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 7.4 points, or 0.09%, to 8,223.4 at midday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down one point, or 0.01%, to 8,475.3.
Small cap stocks were struggling a bit: the ASX20 was up 0.3%, while the Small Ordinaries index was down 0.4%. The latter is an index of the 200 companies in the ASX300 but not the ASX100.
Seven of the ASX’s 11 sectors were higher at midday, with four lower. Tech was the biggest mover, dropping 2.1% as Wisetech Global slumped another 4.8% and Nextdc fell 1.9%.
In the heavyweight mining sector, Fortescue slid 3.3%, BHP was down 0.7% and Rio Tinto had dipped 0.6%, while South32 had gained 2.6%.
In the financial sector, ANZ was up 1.3%, CBA had added 1.2%, NAB had gained 0.8% and Westpac had climbed 0.3%.
The Australian dollar was buying 66.38 US cents, from 66.75 US cents at yesterday’s ASX close.
Severe thunderstorms forecast for parts of NSW and Queensland
Severe thunderstorms are forecast for parts of north-east NSW and south-east Queensland today, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Meteorologist Miriam Bradbury has more on this below:
Thorpe’s office releases letter she wrote to king requesting meeting in 2023
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s office has released a copy of the letter she wrote to King Charles in 2023, requesting a meeting to discuss the potential of treaty between the Crown and First Nations people.
The letter from Thorpe to the king, dated 7 March 2023, stated that a war was declared on First Nations people 200 years ago through “the invasion of our lands”.
We didn’t have firearms and armies to counter your ancestor’s invasion, and ever since then, our people have been feeling the impact of the diseases brought to our land, the dispossession, the displacement and the cultural disconnection forced upon us.
She noted that today, First Nations people are the “most incarcerated anywhere in the world” with a “lower life expectancy, bad health, and rising suicide and child removal rates, continuing the legacy of the stolen generations.”
Thorpe wrote that First Nations people “yearn for nothing more than for peace” – which she said can be achieved through treaty, pointing to both Canada and New Zealand. Thorpe asked King Charles:
Sir, in light of your commitment to decolonisation, I respectfully request a meeting with you in person, if possible before your majesty’s coronation, to discuss the possibility of the crown entering into a Treaty with Australia’s First Nations people. This reconciliation with Australia’s First Peoples could be an incredible legacy for you, Sir, to start your reign as king with.
I would be grateful if your majesty’s office could get in contact with me through [email] or the address below to further explore the possibility of a meeting and cooperation going forward.
Rafqa Touma
Premier speaking in Broken Hill after power blackout hit far west NSW
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has been speaking to reporters in Broken Hill alongside the member for Barwon, Roy Butler. The two met with the community in Broken Hill where Butler says people “have had a very difficult week”:
One of the things we know in a crisis is that people need accurate information, in a timely manner, they need to know how to access support. I know there’s been a ton of anxiety and frustration across the far west over the last week.
Obviously people have come along and spoken to us and, let’s face it, people have had a very difficult week … People had to throw out a lot of food, and lost money through doing that. It’s not the circumstances we would like to come to Broken Hill and meet with people in.
A storm left about 20,000 people without power last week, and put pressure on the energy operator Transgrid to explain why it did not have a backup plan to prevent the outage. You can read more from Catie McLeod and myself here:
Graham Readfearn
You can hear more of Penny Wong’s reflections on the 2009 Copenhagen conference in this episode of Australia vs the Climate: a six-part series that tracked Australia’s behaviours in international talks from Kyoto in 1997 through to Glasgow in 2022.
Wong says she wishes outcome of 2009 Copenhagen conference was different
A reporter noted that on one hand, Australia points to its own record, and on the other, it points to India and China. Penny Wong said “we all have to take responsibility” to tackle climate change, and told reporters:
I wish we were, when I was climate minister between 2007 and 2010 – including the famous Copenhagen conference – I wish that what we were trying to get agreed then had been agreed. And you and I would be having a very different conversation.
But that isn’t what happened globally, and it isn’t what happened in Australia, and we went backwards as a country. We know we have a lot of work to do and I have been upfront with every partner in the Pacific. Of course I listen, I hear what they say, and I think they also see in us a partner that wants to make this transition and we will.
Wong singles out India and China in efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage
Just earlier, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, was speaking to reporters in Samoa amid the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.
She fielded questions about the government’s climate action, particularly around fossil fuel exports, and argued the government is “not a government like [Tony] Abbott and [Scott] Morrison’s, or [that] has the views [Peter] Dutton has demonstrated”:
… where the science of climate change isn’t accepted and the experience of Pacific peoples is diminished.
Wong singled out India and China when asked about fossil fuel usage and said:
There are two emerging economies in the world which account for 40% of global emissions – India and China – and in order for us to have a chance at restraining global temperature rises, we all have to commit to reducing emissions and transitioning to cleaner energy.
Cait Kelly
Commonwealth Bank next up at home ownership hearing
The Commonwealth Bank is up now in the financial regulatory framework and home ownership hearing in Canberra. Andrew Brag asked why the bank has written twice as many loans for people earning more than $500,000 a year than it has for people earning $75,000.
Angus Sullivan, group executive of retail banking services, said:
At the core of the challenge we see here is that a home is expensive for many individuals on lower incomes trying to enter the market, and as a result of fewer lower-income individuals being able to secure affordable home, we see a skew in the profile of income distribution towards high-income earners, or clearly, a massive skew.
He said between 10% to 12% of loans each year are given to first-home buyers, similar numbers to NAB and Westpac.
Sullivan said they look at the buffer as a “prudent” measure to make sure buyers don’t overextend themselves. He said the bank’s portfolio shows they are more at risk of mortgage stress and struggle to get into the market.
Graham Readfearn
Nuclear inquiry starts with Coalition questioning department on electricity gap analysis
A government-backed parliamentary inquiry into the prospects for nuclear energy in Australia is under way, with the Coalition attacking analysis that claims its pro-nuclear plans would see a massive shortfall in electricity supply.
In September, the energy minister, Chris Bowen, released analysis from his department that he said showed that by 2035, the Coalition’s nuclear policy would likely see a gap of at least 18% between electricity demand and supply.
Under questions from Coalition energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, who is the deputy-chair of the select committee set up to run the inquiry, Simon Duggan, a deputy secretary in the department, said the analysis was based on assumptions provided by Bowen’s office.
Those assumptions were that from 2025, there would be no new investment in renewable energy and that coal-fired power stations would stick to the closure schedule assumed by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
But O’Brien said those assumptions were “the opposite” of the Coalition’s positions and were “fundamentally flawed.”
He said the Coalition had made public statements “with respect to ensuring there’s no premature closure of baseload power stations, more gas is poured into the grid and renewables continue to be rolled out.”
He asked if Duggan was comfortable with how the minister had presented the analysis to the public. “I am very comfortable,” Duggan replied.
Earlier in the inquiry, Duggan had reiterated previous advice from other agencies that it would likely take “10 to 15 years” for Australia to start producing electricity from nuclear power if there was to be a change of government policy.
Cait Kelly
More from the home ownership inquiry in Canberra
At the hearing, co-CEO of Financial Counselling Australia Domenique Meyrick said we shouldn’t be having a debate about loosening lending criteria.
What we’re seeing is things that are in place, that are keeping a crisis at bay, doing quite an effective job of that.
She said they have seen a change from people calling about personal loans, credit cards and payday loans to people ringing about their home loans.
It’s so important that these protections are in place, we can see them in effect, and we can also see this burgeoning stress in the community.
Since July, 42,000 people contacted the national debt line for help. A third of those have been about mortgage stress.
The group say relaxing lending standards is “a lazy policy idea” that puts all the risk on people who can least afford to manage it. They say they are seeing families go without fresh food to get by.
Nadia Harrison, CEO of Mortgage Stress Victoria, told the hearing:
Home ownership to repossession or an unaffordable debt is both expensive and totally destructive to an individual and the household. Aside from those financial repercussions, [there are also] long-term disruptions to someone’s financial wellbeing. There’s the wholesale indignity of not being able to provide for your family. And as I said, the mental health and other broader health impacts.
