Greens Senator filmed confronting police over 12 detainees sent to Christmas Island

A Greens Senator involved in a fiery clash with police claimed 12 “innocent” people were being sent to Christmas Island. But how true is that?

In a confronting video, Greens senator Lidia Thorpe stands nose-to-nose with police outside the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, screaming at them for being “violent perpetrators” and “locking up innocent people”.

The video, shared to Ms Thorpe’s social media accounts, shows her leading a protest outside the centre as 12 detainees were about to be moved to the Christmas Island detention centre.

She yells at police outside the centre in Broadmeadows, 16km north of the Melbourne CBD, telling them: “You are the criminals. You are the only criminals on this land.”

“How dare you do that to innocent people?,” Ms Thorpe continues.

“Is it not enough that you’re locking up innocent people? No-one in there has a criminal record. We are talking about innocent people in there. Why are you locking them up? How dare you treat people like that.”

Ms Thorpe tells police they are an “absolute disgrace” and claims they pushed her out of the way during an earlier scuffle.

We're here in solidarity to stop 12 innocent people being deported to Christmas island. pic.twitter.com/q31HacGFsu

— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) May 3, 2022

Others behind Ms Thorpe shout at police, calling them “torturers”, “murderers” and “pigs”.

Sydney radio host Ray Hadley saw the footage and called Ms Thorpe a “raving lunatic Greens senator”.

In a seven-minute segment that aired on Wednesday, Hadley took exception to Ms Thorpe’s claim about the detainees being “innocent”.

“I’ve checked with authorities,” Hadley told listeners. “The 12 people have been assessed as high risk detainees.”

Hadley claimed the detainees had seen their visas cancelled under either Section 501 or Section 116 of the Migration Act.

The Federal Government states that Section 501 “states that a visa must be cancelled when the visa holder has been sentenced to 12 months or more imprisonment, or has been found guilty of a sexually based crime involving a child”.

Section 116 states that the visa holder poses a “risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian community or a segment of the Australian community; or the health or safety of an individual or individuals”.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe confronts Victoria Police officers after the decision to move 12 people to a Christmas Island detention centre. Picture: Twitter/@SenatorThorpe

News.com.au has approached Ms Thorpe and the Department of Home Affairs for comment.

A Department 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”.

On Twitter, Ms Thorpe wrote: “We’re here in solidarity to stop 12 innocent people being deported to Christmas Island.”

On Wednesday, she wrote that Australians should be angry the country’s immigration detention system.

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

“Yesterdays 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.”

Other videos from outside the centre showed police using capsicum spray to keep protesters at bay.

Police capsicum spray protesters outside Broadmeadows Detention Centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie