Australian senator calls Queen Elizabeth II a colonizer during swearing-in ceremony
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New Delhi: A recently elected Australian Senator was heard on a video calling Queen Elizabeth II a colonizer while taking oath on Monday.
Indigenous Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe of the Australian Greens party made the remark inside the Australia's Parliament House in Canberra.
Thorpe who entered the chamber with a raised fist said: ", sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful, and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II"
Senate President Sue Lines cut Thorpe off before she could go further, saying that she was required to recite the oath as printed on the card.
The 96-year-old British Queen is Australia's head of state.
Fox News reported that Thorpe's remark had drawn jeers and groans from the colleagues inside the senate.
Lidia Thorpe then had to say her oath of allegiance in the Senate again without the prefix of "coloniser".
After reciting the oath as printed on the card she later took to Twitter posting, "Sovereignty never ceded".
Until the nation gained de facto independence in 1901, Australia had been a British colony for over 100 years.
Australia's indigenous populations suffered worst from the British rule which includes wiping out of natives in their thousands and displacing of communities.
Australia was eventually Anglicized pushing aside the native people, their culture and languages. Despite gaining independence, Australia has never been complete republic.
An increasing number of Australians are in favour of living in a republic but there is little consensus over how to choose a state head and whether the state of head should be chosen by the parliament or the public.
