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Lidia Thorpe is angry that Peter Dutton was invited to help design the Indigenous Voice and she was not, and says that a far-right terrorist group has threatened her with violence.
- Lidia Thorpe says Voice working groups have turned her down
- She says that Peter Dutton has been invited while she hasn’t.
- She also says she has been threatened by a ‘far-right group’
Newly independent senator Lidia Thorpe claims she has been left out of the process of designing the Indigenous Voice in Parliament, which even opposition leader Peter Dutton has been aware of.
In the first wide-ranging interview since announcing her split from the Greens on Monday, the indigenous politician also said parliament had failed to protect her from threats from a far-right terror group.
Unlike the Greens who have lent their support to the proposed Voice in Parliament, Senator Thorpe opposes it because she believes the body would still recognize Crown sovereignty over Australia.
Senator Lidia Thorpe has given her first interview since she broke away from the Greens to mount opposition to the Indigenous Voice in Parliament.
She claimed opposition leader Peter Dutton had consulted with two task forces that designed the Voice, while she has not had such access.
“I also question the government and the prime minister why Peter Dutton was invited to meet with the task forces and not the grassroots black sovereign movement,” he told ABC on Tuesday.
They have never invited us. Well, they’ve never invited me.
Senator Thorpe claimed the British came to Australia intending to wipe out the First Peoples but had “failed” and Voice perpetuates the “colonial lie” of terra nullius (no man’s land) that allowed the Crown to claim sovereignty.
“First Nations peoples have never relinquished sovereignty and we defy the Crown, the British Crown, who say they are sovereign, who think they became sovereign when they came,” said Senator Thorpe.
The senator, here seen speaking at a rally on January 26 in Melbourne, says the British crown’s claim to sovereignty over Australia is based on a lie.
‘You don’t pounce on someone else’s country and say, by the way, we are now sovereign.
“We put this colonial law above the oldest constitution on the planet.
‘The First Peoples (were) here, so we are the highest sovereign power here. And this country needs to come to terms with that.’
The outspoken senator made the startling admission that she would like to speak to King Charles III and that she would be on the “first plane” to the UK if she could secure that meeting.
During his swearing-in ceremony before Parliament in August last year, he referred to Queen Elizabeth as a “settler”.
Senator Thorpe hit back strongly at critics who she said had “demonized” her for taking an independent course and said she had been subjected to threats of violence from extremists.
“I think parliament did not protect me,” he said.
Senator Thorpe was not overly impressed that opposition leader Peter Dutton (pictured) has consulted with groups that crafted Voice, while she has not been invited to do so.
Senator Thorpe, seen here at a rally on January 26 in Melbourne, said her outspoken views had seen her threatened by far-right terrorist groups.
“If we go back to January 26 of last year, I was threatened by the far right, there have been subsequent public threats by this far right terrorist group.
“And I think that’s the reality of what it’s like as a black woman in a public space that has some power, the Greens could only, the Greens protected me the best way they could.”
Senator Thorpe added that the threats had been referred to the Australian Federal Police, but the agency needed to give her “better updates on what’s going on with my security.”
He called those who questioned his use of public money a demonstration of “systemic racism” and “violence against black women.”
Senator Thorpe acknowledged that there would be challenges operating without a party structure behind her, but insisted that she had the right team to get the job done.
“I look forward to a future of having a black voice that is not limited by anything,” he said.