Australia's parliament opens with tradition and pageantry – plus a sideshow of protest and reactionary zeal

The Guardian

3 days ago

Just as the governor general, Sam Mostyn, was preparing to address the ceremonial opening of federal parliament this week, word got around the press gallery that One Nation was preparing to mount a stunt.
Along with veterans Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts, One Nation's two new senators, Warwick Stacey from New South Wales and Tyron Whitten from Western Australia, had quietly let it be known they would turn their back on the Indigenous acknowledgment of country.
Tuesday's opening was dominated by tradition and pageantry, including a welcome to country event in the Great Hall and a smoking ceremony on the forecourt earlier in the afternoon. Usually sparsely occupied, the Senate press gallery was packed with reporters but, initially at least, One Nation's statement failed to eventuate.
During the speech – a laundry list of the government's policy commitments for the upcoming term, read by the king's representative in Canberra – Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, held up a sign protesting against the starvation and suffering caused by Israel's denial of aid for Palestinians in Gaza. That move saw Faruqi sanctioned by the Senate a day later. Labor and the Coalition voted to bar her from taking part in any overseas parliamentary delegations for the next three years, and the Senate president, Sue Lines, called her 'utterly disrespectful' to Mostyn. The debate was at times bitter.
Later, as the normal business of parliament got under way at about 5pm, the One Nation foursome turned their backs as Lines made the routine acknowledgment of Canberra's traditional custodians, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and Indigenous elders around the country. The statement took barely 10 seconds, before Hanson, Roberts, Stacey and Whitten were forced into an awkward pivot to avoid snubbing the Lord's Prayer.
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For decades, Hanson has weaponised the politics of grievance, including punching down on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. She was on Sky on Tuesday evening to say she was fed up with the practice of acknowledging Indigenous communities, erroneously calling the brief statement a welcome to country, before claiming the longstanding practice somehow 'disenfranchised' her. In reality, the stunt wasn't for the press gallery or other members, but rather it was orchestrated to be quickly packaged up for One Nation's social media followers.
Ironically, Hanson then criticised Victorian independent senator Lidia Thorpe for making protests that disrupt parliamentary traditions in Canberra, before claiming it was Labor that was driving division in the community. Sky host Chris Kenny pointed out that some people consider the acknowledgment overdone elsewhere but it was surely appropriate at the start of a sitting of the country's parliament. He suggested participation by Hanson's crew would be the polite approach. The firebrand senator was unmoved.
Not to be outdone, Coalition MPs did their best to overshadow Sussan Ley's first question time as opposition leader in the lower house, with Nationals backbenchers Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack making a splash on their new partnership to officially oppose net zero some time this year.
Joyce has a private member's bill on the issue, and despite reviews being under way in both the Liberal and Nationals party rooms, he and McCormack came out to call plans to wind back damaging carbon emissions 'insane'. Farmers, they claimed, are fed up with infrastructure for renewable energy taking up prime agricultural land – the MPs failed to acknowledge that drought, floods and less predictable rain patterns caused by climate change are making life for farmers worse.
Some Coalition figures consider net zero one of the most politically complex issues facing the Liberals and Nationals in decades, with both parties facing a likely impossible task of trying to reconcile disparate policies in time for the next election. One Nationals figure compared the two former leaders to old bulls bored after being put out to pasture.
The rightwing MPs determined to keep fighting the climate wars look out of touch, long after voters have made up their minds on the subject. It shouldn't be lost on anyone that both Joyce and McCormack have previously argued for net zero and Labor's ascendancy could render the Coalition's policy position pretty meaningless for at least three – possibly six – years to come.
By Friday, the Liberal Senate leader, Michaelia Cash, was arguing against acknowledgment of country and the Aboriginal flag being displayed at official events. Cash endorsed motions to be debated at the weekend's WA Liberal state council, also set to include a push to abandon net zero endorsed by frontbencher Andrew Hastie.
For her part, Ley, who says she wants the Coalition to better reflect the modern Australia it seeks to represent, was gracious in acknowledging symbolic and practical recognition of Indigenous Australians this week.
She called for the ceremonial welcome by Indigenous leaders to 'set the tone' for MPs as they seek practical action to improve lives and expand opportunity for Indigenous people around the country.
Liberal figures were downcast about the atmospherics of renewed culture war fights on the flag, Indigenous recognition and net zero, asking why MPs would waste valuable political capital to speak outside their portfolios. One called the antics 'a sideshow' and suggested more discipline was necessary to bring the fight to Labor.
It might be only a few months on from the 3 May election, but Hanson and the outspoken members of the Coalition have failed to appreciate that Anthony Albanese won the centre by focusing on the issues that voters see as critical to making their lives better.
Ley's predecessor, Peter Dutton, lost in part because voters were turned off by his attacks on Indigenous recognition and Trump-style division and obstruction. Even many who find statements of acknowledgment overdone at public events or in meetings at work don't want parliament turned into a sideshow of reactionary zeal. Both the Coalition and Labor's election reviews will show Dutton's campaign aggression and intolerance unsettled voters, including those who might otherwise have been open to voting for the Coalition.
Mostyn said it best in her speech to the Senate. While acknowledging the challenges of the past and urging renewed action to close the Indigenous disadvantage gap, she called for all Australians to 'approach the path forward together with determination, humility and optimism'.
It might be a long three years.