Lidia Thorpe’s uncanny parallel with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson

Former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has more in common with the One Nation founder Pauline Hanson than you might think.

When Lidia Thorpe stood before a crowd of protesters with fake blood running down her arms last year, her anti-monarchy message got the reception you might expect from Pauline Hanson.

“The Crown has blood on their hands, our people are still dying in this country every single day, the Crown’s boot is on our neck and we are sick of it,’’ Senator Thorpe said.

Senator Hanson returned fire, describing the Greens MP as “despicable” for covering herself in red paint, on the National Day of Mourning no less to mark Queen Elizabeth’s II passing.

“I don’t believe she’s loyal to the parliament, to the people she’s supposed to represent. I think she’s a despicable person and people have got what they voted for,’’ Senator Hanson said.

The loyalty question is now live following Senator Thorpe’s decision to quit the Greens and sit as a crossbench senator.

But Lidia Thorpe has more in common with the One Nation founder than you might think.

High profile? Tick. Controversy? Tick.

Lidia Thorpe’s antimonarchy message on the National Day of Mourning for the Queen got the reception you might expect from Pauline Hanson. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

A politician that voters love to hate and read about? All of the above.

The comparison would no doubt horrify both women but the parallels are clear enough.

Thirty years after she emerged as a divisive national figure, Senator Thorpe is walking in her nemesis’ footsteps after splitting with the Greens.

Like Hanson, Lidia Thorpe now threatens to eclipse and drown out her colleagues with her firebrand message.

Senator Thorpe’s own journey into parliament was through a casual vacancy in 2020 following the resignation of former Greens leader Richard Di Natale.

She was elected following a statewide ballot of the Victorian Greens membership.

But now she’s out the door after getting that endorsement and more recently a six-year term in parliament.

Nobody in the Greens should be surprised however about her reasons for quitting.

In her 2020 maiden speech to parliament, Senator Thorpe made her position clear.

“Treaty must come before other debates, such as constitutional recognition, changing the date of Australia Day, or a voice to parliament,’’ Senator Thorpe said.

And of course in 2017, she famously walked out of the Uluru Convention, protesting in solidarity with campaigners who believe in the political primacy of the Treaty.

The walkout was big news at the time, but the Uluru Statement from the Heart proceeded.

What was clear then and now was that Lidia Thorpe never supported it.

While controversial and in some cases derided in the Greens as divisive, her past is what connects her with supporters.

The comparison between Thorpe and Hanson would no doubt horrify both women but the parallels are clear. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Nicki Connolly

“Living in the Collingwood housing commission flats saved my life,’’ Senator Thorpe told parliament in her first speech.

“This was a place of Black activism in this country, right here in Fitzroy, it’s where it all began. Even Muhammad Ali was here as part of the Black Panthers movement.

“People like me were not meant to end up in places like this. Our voices were silenced, sidelined and written out of the story of our own country. But I never gave up believing that better days were possible.”

Pauline Hanson began her own political career as a creature of the Liberal Party, when she was preselected for the Division of Oxley in Queensland.

She was disendorsed shortly before the 1996 federal election. The flashpoint was Aboriginal rights.

“I would be first to admit that, not that many years ago the Aborigines were treated wrongly but in trying to correct this they have gone too far,’’ Ms Hanson said.

“How can you expect this race to help themselves when the government showers them with money, facilities and opportunities that only these people can obtain no matter how minute the Indigenous blood that is flowing through their veins, and this is what is causing racism.”

It was enough to see John Howard dump as the Liberal Party’s candidate but not enough to see her removed from the ballot paper. She was elected and the rest is history.

It remains to be seen if Senator Thorpe can emerge as a figure of similar longevity.

But she seems to be walking a similar path.