When is a Prop? Volatile Objects and Populist Activism in the Australian Parliament

In February 2017, when then-Treasurer Scott Morrison brandished a lump of coal in Australia’s House of Representatives to drive home his party’s commitment to fossil fuels, the Speaker took issue with the breach in protocol, interjecting: ‘The Treasurer knows the rule on props.’ But while there are strict guidelines around the use of illustrative objects in the Australian Parliament, there is no rule as such, nor is there a clear-cut definition of a ‘prop.’ In this seminar presentation, I explore how some Australian parliamentarians have exploited both parliamentary procedure and the ambiguous status of objects introduced onto the floor of the House and Senate in order to advance activist political agendas. In focusing on a sign held up by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi protesting starvation in Gaza, and on a burqa worn by One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, I further consider what such actions can teach us about the dramaturgy and nature of theatrical objects in populist politics.

Paul Rae is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Theatre & Human Rights, Real Theatre and co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Mixed Methods for Theatre and Performance Research (Cambridge UP, 2024). Paul publishes widely on contemporary theatre and on Asia-Pacific performance cultures. His next book will be Performing Islands. He publishes a regular Theatre Studies essay on Substack called What the Theatre Said.