Senator Lidia Thorpe, who just declared her independence, alleges that she was excluded from the planning phase of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which even Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was aware of.
The Indigenous lawmaker also claimed that Parliament had failed to defend her from threats made by a far-right terrorist organisation in the first in-depth interview since she announced her separation from the Greens on Monday.
Senator Thorpe disagrees with the planned Voice to Parliament, in contrast to the Greens, since she thinks the organization would continue to recognize Crown authority over Australia.
She said that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had consultations with two working groups developing the Voice, but she hasn’t had access to those groups.
She said in a statement to the ABC on Tuesday, “I also query the administration and the Prime Minister as to why Peter Dutton was asked to meet with the working groups and not the grassroots Black sovereign movement.”
We’ve never received an invitation, So, I’ve never received an invitation.
The British arrived in Australia with the intention of eradicating the First Peoples, but Senator Thorpe said they “failed” and the Voice continues to propagate the “colonial fiction” of terra nullius (nobody’s land), which enabled the Crown to declare authority.
According to Senator Thorpe, “First Nations peoples have never given sovereignty and we confront the Crown, the British Crown, who claim to be sovereign and who believe that they acquired sovereignty upon arrival.”
You don’t simply show up in another nation and declare yourself to be sovereign.
“We imposed this colonial statute on top of the world’s oldest constitution.”
We are the ultimate sovereign authority in this location since First Peoples (were) here. And that’s something our nation has to accept.
The outspoken senator made the startling declaration that she would go to the UK on the “first aircraft” if she could have a meeting with King Charles III.
In August of last year, when she took the oath of office in Parliament, she called Queen Elizabeth a “colonizer.”
Senator Thorpe forcefully retaliated against her detractors, claiming they had “demonized” her for choosing an independent path and that she had received violent threats from radicals.
She remarked, “I believe the parliament failed to safeguard me.”
“If we go back to January 26 of last year, I had the extreme right threaten me. This far-right terrorist organization has since made public threats against me.”
“And I think that’s just the reality of what it’s like for a black woman in a public area who’s got some authority,” said the Greens, who “protected me in the best manner they could.”
The Australian Federal Police had been alerted to the threats, Senator Thorpe said, but the organization needed to provide her with “better information on what’s happening with my protection.”
Those who questioned her use of public funds were accused by her of engaging in “systemic racism” and “violence against black women.”
Senator Thorpe agreed that working without the support of a party structure would be difficult, but she claimed that she had the appropriate people for the task.
I’m excited about having a black voice in the future that is unrestricted, she remarked.
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