Greens Northcote candidate reveals abusive relationship led to her bankruptcy

GREENS candidate for the Northcote by-election Lidia Thorpe has revealed an abusive relationship and failed business led to her being declared bankrupt in 2013.

Lidia Thorpe has revealed an abusive relationship and failed business led to her being declared bankrupt in 2013. Picture: Supplied

GREENS candidate for the Northcote by-election Lidia Thorpe has revealed an abusive relationship and failed business led to her being declared bankrupt in 2013.

The Herald Sun uncovered documents this week that showed Ms Thorpe was discharged from bankruptcy late last year, about eight months before running for State Parliament.

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The documents showed more than $611,000 in secured debts and mortgages, including with Indigenous Business Australia.

There was also almost $100,000 owed to unsecured creditors — $55,277 to the Australian Taxation Office, about $38,500 in business loans and almost $3700 in unpaid rates, utilities and childcare.

Ms Thorpe, a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman who is vying to become Victoria’s first Aboriginal MP, has now revealed details of her financial woes.

Greens candidate for the Northcote by-election Lidia Thorpe was discharged from bankruptcy late last year. Picture: Tony Gough

She said she was lumped with growing debts after her abusive partner froze her out of their shared glazing business in Gippsland.

“I was never very active in the business but as things got tough, I was excluded more and more and our relationship became abusive. The business dealings were kept from me and I had no idea what bad shape things were really in,” she said.

“On the advice of legal aid, I was declared bankrupt. So, like many survivors of family violence, I ended up losing everything in a bid to protect myself and my family from an impossible situation.”

Ms Thorpe is in a contest with Labor’s Clare Burns to win the seat of Northcote, after the tragic death of sitting MP Fiona Richardson left the inner-city seat vacant.

Ms Richardson was also a survivor of family violence and was the state’s first prevention of family violence minister.

Ms Thorpe said she was “disappointed” that her family would have to read about this “incredibly traumatic” period in her life in the media.

She also said her former husband has worked to “turn his life around and to be a good dad to our daughter”.

Ms Thorpe recently set up another business, called Clan Corporation, which she described as “not very active at the moment”.

If elected next month, the Greens candidate said she would wind up that business altogether.

“Four years on, I have rebuilt my life completely here in the community where I grew up and that I love, but I will never fully recover financially from what I went through,” she said.

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