"Shame on you all": Lydia Thorpe hits back after Senate censure
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has spoken out after the Senate voted to censure her over a protest she staged during King Charles' Australian visit.
During the monarch's visit to Canberra, Thorpe started yelling from the back of the room following King Charles' speech to a room of political and community leaders at Parliament House's Great Hall.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people, you destroyed our land,” Thorpe said during her outburst.
“We want a treaty in this country. This is not your land. You are not my King, you are not our King. F*** the colony.”
The outburst prompted a vote from the Senate to censure Thorpe - meaning to formally share an expression of the Senate's disapproval - as she responded to the decision on Monday saying, the motion was "a clear articulation of the racism that I continually have to deal with in my workplace."
Thorpe said the vote was, "A time where you see Labor and the Liberal party come together to shut down a Blak voice — that’s been happening in this country for over 200 years."
The Senate passed a motion 46 votes to 12 to censure her over her actions, as Thorpe entered the Senate chamber after the vote and yelled: "Shame on you all".
"If (the king) comes back in, I'll do it again."
Thorpe was not present for the vote due to a flight delay, although she said she had contacted Labor minister Don Farrell to ask him to delay the vote but claimed she was "denied my right to be in that chamber whilst everybody else voted to shut me down".
Thorpe later told reporters she "did not give a damn" about being censured and tore up a piece of paper with the motion on it.
Thorpe said in a statement before the vote took place that that motion showed "where the major parties' priorities lie".
"They don't stand with First Peoples in this country. They stand against justice for our people, preferring instead to defend a foreign king, rather than listen to the truth," she said.
"In no way do I regret protesting the King ... it is time this country reckons with its history, and puts a stop to the continuing genocide on First Peoples."
Image credits: MICK TSIKAS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial