Lidia Thorpe says for First Nations people the Australian flag is ‘absurd’ and ‘an obscenity’

Victorian Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe says the Australian flag represents “a colonial invasion” and she wants a new national design.

Outspoken Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has blasted the Australian flag as an “obscenity”, calling for a new national design.

Her controversial comments come after Greens leader Adam Bandt refused to stand in front of the Australian flag, instead appearing with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags during a press conference on Monday.

The stunt, which resulted in the national flag being moved to the side of the room, has sparked a wave of criticism from other federal politicians.

But Senator Thorpe, who is indigenous, said: “The Australian flag represents a colonial invasion, which massacred and murdered thousands of Aboriginal women, men and children”.

“For First Nations people that flag is absurd. It’s an obscenity,” she told 3AW.

Lidia Thorpe is calling for a new Australian flag. Picture: Getty

Senator Thorpe acknowledged that the removal of the Australian flag would have “upset” people who feel it is a sign of patriotism.

But she said First Nations people did not feel the same way because “no permission” was sought to fly the flag here.

She said Australia was ready to have a conversation and “come together and work out the new flag” to create unity.

“The Australian flag does not represent me. It does not represent my family and it does not represent many clans and nations around this country,” the Victorian said.

The Australian flag at the side of the room before Adam Bandt’s press conference.

New CLP Senator Jacinta Price, who is an indigenous leader, slammed Mr Bandt’s removal of the flag saying “woke culture is destroying us”.

“If this is what Greens voters subscribe to then Australia we are in trouble,” she wrote on Facebook.

“We seriously need a better education system, we need to start living in reality and we need to take pride in our nation!”

Herbert MP Phillip Thompson also took to social media to say his wife Jenna, a proud Aboriginal woman, was “disgusted” by Mr Bandt’s stunt.

“I take the importance of the Australian national flag very seriously, I fought in Afghanistan underneath it, my brothers who were killed in action have had our flag draped over their coffin,” he wrote.

“Our national flag has significance to many Australians. Adam Bandt is a national disgrace.”

Anthony Albanese made a point of installing both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags alongside the Australian flag at his press conferences, after becoming Prime Minister last month.

Originally published as Lidia Thorpe says for First Nations people the Australian flag is ‘absurd’ and ‘an obscenity’