Lidia Thorpe denounces sovereign citizen theory
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has disavowed bizarre sovereign citizen beliefs she raised in an impromptu speech to Parliament and in a document she tabled, saying she unwittingly promoted a constituent’s “false” claims but did not support them.
On Wednesday night, Thorpe gave a short speech in the Senate in favour of tabling a document she had received from a “number of Traditional Owners across the country”.
In these comments, the senator mentioned providing a “customary law notice” and claimed the Australian government is actually a corporation — two concepts that are common beliefs of the pseudolegal sovereign citizen ideology that forms a basis for ignoring Australian laws.
Thorpe also cited Uncle Juma of the Larrakia and the United Tribal Countries Land Alliance, an individual and group with links to Australian sovereign citizens.
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After a clip of Thorpe speaking circulated in online conspiracy circles, the senator released a statement saying she had tabled the documents from constituents as part of her normal practice. When the Coalition voted against the motion, she was unprepared to make a brief statement in support of the tabling, Thorpe said.
“I read sections straight of the document in front of me, which was not an endorsement of these claims, and I acknowledge these claims are false,” she said.
Thorpe denounced the sovereign citizen movement, saying it “misrepresent[s] legal and historical facts and distract[s] from the legitimate struggle for First People’s sovereign and self-determination”.
After Thorpe’s speech, National Senator Ross Cadell flagged that the sovereign citizen document Thorpe sought to table was “not fully coherent”.
“[The document] contains many claims that are not fully tested and maintains all sorts of things that would belong, if this were America, in the sovereign citizen movement … So that is why we will not be supporting the tabling of this document,” he said.
While various federal government entities are registered as businesses, this registration does not preclude them from also being government states, in the same way a sole trader having an ABN number doesn’t mean they’re no longer a person. It is, however, a key plank of sovereign citizen claims that governments such as Australia’s are illegitimate corporations with no power.
The tabled faux court and trademark documents, along with correspondence, threaten “penalties” and the taking of “whatever LAWFUL steps may be necessary” for not recognising their legitimacy. Many of the documents feature red fingerprints, a calling card of sovereign citizens who use the symbol as a sign of asserting their self-determination. The Senate subsequently voted to table the document.
Uncle Juma of the Larrakia, whose signature was also in the tabled documents, appears to be the same Larrakia elder associated with David Cole, a leader of the sovereign citizen Original Sovereign Tribal Federal Federation and a major source of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Juma, referred to as Juma Fejo, was reportedly responsible for giving a non-existent permit to Darwin-based “freedom movement” protesters that police mistakenly assumed meant they were not liable for fines for violating public health orders.
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Little is known about the United Tribal Countries Land Alliance. However, one of the tabled documents was also submitted to a government inquiry by Derek Balogh, a pseudolaw practitioner whose paying clients have reportedly faced misfortunes like losing their homes after following his advice.
Sovereign citizen adherents and groups have a history of trying to exploit Indigenous peoples and their communities. While there is a superficial similarity between the claims of sovereign citizens and some Indigenous peoples about the illegitimacy of the Australian state, the former’s claims are typically based on misinterpretations and fabrications about Australian and other countries’ legal systems.
In 2023, Aboriginal tent embassy founder and Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael Anderson made a distinction between the interpretations of sovereignty in an interview with Guardian Australia. Anderson argued that the sovereign citizen idea of sovereignty involved disrespecting both Indigenous lore and Australian law in favour of complete individual freedom.
By comparison, Indigenous communities had rights and responsibilities over their country: “That’s an exercise of sovereignty by an individual, but it’s one of a spiritual kind. It belongs to the sacred realm of the Aboriginal people,” Anderson said.
“Sovereignty is an exercise of decision-making for the whole of the community and the people who live within it. And that’s authorised by a democratic process, who gives them the power to do it.”
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