The federal Coalition will push for a censure motion against Greens senator Lidia Thorpe in parliament next week following revelations she failed to disclose a relationship with former Rebels bikie president Dean Martin while serving on the law enforcement committee.
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley called on Thorpe to resign from parliament altogether, saying she was unfit to remain in the Senate, and urged Labor to back the censure motion when both houses sit next week.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley says any censure motion against Lidia Thorpe in the Senate should be supported.Credit:Steven Siewert
“Any censure motion against Senator Thorpe in the Senate should be supported and I’m calling on the Greens leader to ask Senator Thorpe to resign from the parliament,” Ley said.
“Someone who has disrespected our institutions in this way is not fit to hold office and that disrespect is lengthy and it’s pretty awful. We need the Greens, as a party, to disown Senator Thorpe and her transgressions and in particular, the latest one. You can’t get briefings from law enforcement agencies by day and be in bed with [former] bikies by night.”
Ley’s call was backed by Indigenous Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – a longtime critic of Thorpe – who called the senator’s position untenable.
“She should be stripped of any further responsibilities. She shouldn’t be holding portfolios. Her position is untenable. If the Greens really think that they’ve got the best interests of Australians at heart, well, then they would simply disendorse her.”
Thorpe was forced to resign as Greens deputy leader in the Senate on Thursday, as party leader Adam Bandt called her actions a “significant error of judgement” and integrity experts raised concerns about the perception of a conflict of interest.
Thorpe confirmed to the ABC she had “briefly dated” Martin, who has no criminal convictions but was associated with the Rebels for 25 years.
This masthead does not suggest he has any continuing association with the Rebels. He stepped down in 2018 as president after his brother, Shane Martin, the father of Richmond star Dusty Martin, was deported to New Zealand.
The joint parliamentary committee on law enforcement had received confidential briefings in the past about bikie gangs and organised crime. Thorpe, who was a member of the committee between February 2021 and April 2022, has denied passing on any confidential information and this masthead does not suggest she has done so. In a statement on Thursday, Thorpe said: “I accept that I have made mistakes and have not exercised good judgement”.
Greens leader Adam Bandt, left, Lidia Thorpe, and Dean Martin.Credit:Jason South, Paul Jeffers, Jesse Marlow
Despite acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, Bandt on Thursday said he retained confidence in Thorpe as a parliamentarian and confirmed she would continue to hold the party’s First Nations portfolio.
However, some Indigenous leaders have also questioned Thorpe’s fitness to continue holding the portfolio role.
Prominent academic Marcia Langton told The Australian newspaper Thorpe “lacks in good judgement and common sense, she is not fit for the task of representing properly and adequately our very complex issues”.
Marcus Stewart, co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, said Thorpe’s conduct was clouding her ability to advocate for Indigenous Australians. Stewart is the partner of Labor senator Jana Stewart.
“I think maybe it’s time for a bit of time out for the senator. I think it poses a question on the legitimacy of your message when you’re advocating for First Nations affairs, but these issues keep popping up. I think it raises questions. Are the Australian public, or other politicians going to listen to what we need, what we’re going to fight for when these things just continually pop up,” he said on ABC radio.
Their comments expose the already-strained relationship between Thorpe and some high-profile members of the Aboriginal community over the best way forward for the Indigenous rights movement. A central flashpoint has been the issue of the referendum to enshrine a Voice to parliament in the Constitution.
Both Langton and Stewart are members of the Albanese government’s Indigenous working group advising on the Voice. Thorpe famously walked out of the Uluru dialogues in 2017 where the vast majority of Indigenous delegates ultimately endorsed the Voice to parliament as the first plank of the Uluru Statement, followed by treaty and truth.
Earlier this year, Thorpe called the referendum a “waste of money” but has since walked back her remarks to say she will not campaign for a “No” vote.
Thorpe, who entered the Senate in September 2020, has also been a lightning rod for controversy since then. In December, she was forced to apologise to Liberal senator Holly Hughes for using “using inappropriate language” after telling her in an evening debate: “At least I keep my legs shut”.
This masthead revealed last month that Thorpe had been accused of verbally abusing Indigenous elder Aunty Geraldine Atkinson during a meeting in Parliament House in 2021. Her former chief-of-staff described the senator’s behaviour as among the most unprofessional conduct he had ever witnessed.
Thorpe was forced to retake her oath of office earlier this year after she referred to Queen Elizabeth II as “the colonising” Queen, and was widely criticised in January after tweeting that the colonial system was “burning down” after a fire broke out at Old Parliament House.
“Seems like the colonial system is burning down. Happy New Year everyone,” she said in a since-deleted tweet.
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