Lidia Thorpe has sensationally accused a liberal politician of racism and vowed not to tolerate being “racially maligned at work.”
The claims of racism came after the fiery independent politician was interrupted while making a recognition of his country.
Liberal Senator Holly Hughes picked up on the official transcript and mumbled “how many times has that happened today?” after confirmation has taken place.
The comment was too faint to hear on playback, but was picked up in the official transcript and heard clearly by Ms. Thorpe, who was speaking across the room about the impact of climate change and colonisation.
It prompted an immediate response from Mrs. Thorpe, who pointed to Mrs. Hughes and asked the room, “Is that racism?”
“Can I please just call out racism in this room now? Acting Deputy President, I call out.”
Firebrand Senator Lidia Thorpe has accused a liberal politician of racism and vowed not to tolerate being ‘racially maligned at work’
Ms Hughes immediately asked Ms Thorpe to withdraw the comments, which she refused to do.
“I’m at work and I don’t need racists being racist at me while I read my speech,” Ms Thorpe said.
“Can you make sure I’m not the target of racism while I’m trying to do my job, please?”
Mrs Hughes immediately hit back, jumping to her feet and pointing at Mrs Thorpe for saying it was inappropriate ‘to call anyone racist in this place’.
“I’d ask her to back off. That is absolutely inappropriate, and I will not be referred to anything by you, let alone that.
“I just want to point out that the constant reference to Australians born here from a different heritage and referred to as settlers is in no way helpful.”
Ms Thorpe repeated her criticism of Ms Hughes asking for the Hansard – or transcription – to be reviewed, vowing not to retract her comments ‘until you understand I have just been racially vilified’.
Mrs Hughes immediately hit back, jumped to her feet and pointed down Mrs Thorpe as she said it was inappropriate ‘to refer to anyone in this place as racist’
Ms Thorpe had debated the Protection Mechanism Amendment Act and praised the Greens – her former party – for the concessions they had won from Labor over coal and gas extraction.
She said: “Last week the IPCC issued a final alarm on the climate crisis. This crisis began in this country more than 250 years ago, with colonization. Climate change and its underlying causes cannot be separated from colonization.
“This country is our mother and we are killing her. Every time a new coal pit is dug, she gets hurt. She bleeds with every new fracking pit driven into her veins.’
Senator Thorpe noted that First Nations people are “first and worst affected by the impacts of climate change,” but have not benefited from the industry.
“These are industries that have generated trillions of dollars in stolen wealth, all at the cost of polluting and killing our land, our waters and our air,” she said.
“We are in a climate crisis, although I want to remind you all that the majority of First Nations have been in crisis every day since colonization, as we have been driven from our lands and forced to distance ourselves and move to colonial times. project to watch. destroying our lands and waters in the quest to extract fossil fuels. Therefore, there can be no climate justice without First Nations justice.”
Greens leader Adam Bandt announced today that his party has struck a deal with Labor over the climate policy it has taken ahead of the federal election
While she supports Greens and Labor efforts to cut emissions, she is in talks with the government to take the bill a step further “to ensure First Nations people are not left behind.”
She calls on the government to allow First Nations people to lead projects on their own land, along with an investment in the education of these communities.
“I will continue to work with the government and hope to gain their support for this amendment,” she said.
“I look forward to continuing to work with the government and others in this House to ensure First Nations justice remains at the heart of climate action in this country.”
The safeguard mechanism, initiated by the coalition government but under review by Labour, will apply to the country’s top 215 emitters and force them to cut their emissions by 4.9 per cent a year
The Senate debated amendments to the bill last night, days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt struck a deal.
Bandt’s deal means Energy Secretary Chris Bowen’s safeguard mechanism can now pass the Senate after weeks of Labor claiming the Greens could vote down the proposal, as they did with Kevin Rudd’s emissions plan in 2009.
Before the deal, Mr Bandt and his party had expressed concern that the government’s plan could exacerbate the climate crisis and small party founder Bob Brown railed against the policy.
The policy requires the country’s 215 largest carbon dioxide emitters to reduce pollution by five percent a year through 2030 and sets a “hard cap” on emissions.
Mr Bandt said the bill will include a ‘pollution trigger’ that will require the climate change minister, currently Mr Bowen, to test the impact of new or expanded polluting projects on the country’s cap and net carbon budgets.
He said the amendments he had secured would cause the gas and coal industries to take a “major blow.”
Mr Bandt said: ‘There will now be a hard limit in legislation on the actual emissions that the security sector is allowed to emit.
“This puts a cap on coal and gas expansion in this country. In fact, the limit should decrease over time.
“There will be, for the first time in this country, a legal limit on the amount of pollution that these companies, including the coal and gas companies, can pollute.
“I want to say to everyone who is despairing about the future under our climate crisis and who is worried about their lives or their children’ or their grandchildren’ that you need to have a springboard today because we have shown that it is possible to take it take on the coal and gas companies and win.”
On Monday, Indigenous traditional owners from the Beetaloo Basin region told Daily Mail Australia they were ‘grateful’ for the decision.
Beetaloo is located 400 kilometers south of Darwin and contains enough shale gas to power Australia for up to 200 years.
On Monday, Indigenous traditional owners from the Beetaloo Basin region told Daily Mail Australia they were ‘grateful’ for the decision (Photo: Members of the Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, including both Johnny Wilson and Samuel Sandy)
Johnny Wilson said, “Our country is in the hands of these great gas companies and I am very thankful that one day we may no longer have to fight to protect our land, sacred sites, culture and water.
“Nobody has seen the jobs and economic benefits that the fracking companies have long promised, and we don’t believe they ever will.
“We want to live peacefully on our land and keep it safe for our children and grandchildren.
“The future is in the power of the sun, not in drilling my grandparents’ land and damaging water and everything that depends on it.”
And Samuel Janama Sandy, an elder and deputy chairman of Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation, said the community is “happy to hear about the new laws that could result in gas companies having to work harder to get their projects through.”
“Fracking will harm our land, songlines, dreams and water,” he said.
“We need to protect the environment, the birds and the animals and keep them safe for future generations and I hope we can continue to take our grandchildren and continue to swim in the waterholes and drink the clean water.”
Johnny Wilson said: ‘Our country is in the hands of these great gas companies and I am very grateful that one day we may not have to fight to protect our land, sacred sites, culture and water’