Greens leader Adam Bandt weighs in after Lidia Thorpe’s spray at police

Greens leader Adam Bandt has responded after one of his senators was involved in an ugly clash with police.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has weighed in after his senator’s fiery confrontation with police at a protest in Melbourne, saying his party “will always support protests defending refugees and migrant rights”.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe was on Tuesday filmed clashing with police over 12 detainees sent to Christmas Island during a protest in Broadmeadows.

The video, shared to Senator Thorpe’s social media accounts, showed the senator leading a protest outside the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation as the dozen detainees were to be moved.

“You are the criminals, you are the only criminals on this land,” Senator Thorpe shouted at police in the video.

“How dare you people do that to innocent people.

“Is it not enough that you’re locking up innocent people?

“Why are you locking them up - why?”

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe confronts police at Tuesday’s protest. Photo: Twitter/@SenatorThorpe

Senator Thorpe also told police they were an “absolute disgrace” and alleged they’d pushed her out of the way.

The next day, the Senator took to social media to explain her actions were about “right and wrong”.

“People are calling me a crazy, angry Blak woman. I am all of these things, and proud of it,” she tweeted on Wednesday.

“Yesterday’s protest wasn’t about right and left, it was about right and wrong. This country’s immigration detention system is designed to be dehumanising.

“We should be angry about that.”

Senator Thorpe accused police of ‘locking up innocent people’. Picture: Twitter/@SenatorThorpe

Greens Leader Adam Bandt on Thursday said his party backed protests defending rights of migrants and refugees.

“Unlike Liberal and Labor, the Greens will always support protests defending refugees and migrant rights,” Mr Bandt said.

A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson told news.com.au that the “cohort being transferred” was made up of detainees “whose visas have been cancelled due to being a risk to the community, and includes those convicted of serious crimes relating to assault, illicit drugs, robbery, domestic violence and other offences”.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said his party would always back protests defending migrant and refugee rights. Photo: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Originally published as Greens leader Adam Bandt weighs in after Lidia Thorpe’s spray at police