Stuntwoman Lidia Thorpe gets the headlines, but won’t get outcomes

Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne no doubt spoke for many Australians when he rubbished Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe over her right royal protest in Parliament House.

“I was absolutely amazed that she got through the door,” Payne told me after witnessing Thorpe disrupt a reception for King Charles III to call for a treaty for First Australians. “That was uncalled-for and un-Australian.”

But there was no simple way to stop Thorpe making an appearance in the Great Hall because she is an elected senator – and she knew how to use her status to make her point.

Thorpe was loud and dramatic. She was also disrespectful. And, most of all, strategic. She timed her intervention for the natural pause when the King had finished his address to the reception and was resuming his seat.

Never mind that the King had spoken with respect about the 65,000 years of First Nations history and the importance of reconciliation. Thorpe was not in the room for a polite exchange of views.

Thorpe infuriates her critics not merely because they oppose her cause but because they dislike her stunts. A major party leader cannot get away with her disruption, but her tactics certainly work for her. In a world of bland politicians who stumble over their words, she knows how to pack emotional power into every phrase.

She showed that again on Monday with her perfect timing, her dramatic movement through the centre of the Great Hall and her angry body language for the television cameras. All of this with strong words in short sentences.

Who could stop her? Thorpe was an invited guest at the parliamentary reception because she is an elected senator. It is true that she has no significant mandate: she only gained 40,174 primary votes in Victoria at the last election, out of 3.8 million formal votes, and she no longer represents the Greens, the party that brought her to parliament. Even so, nobody has the right to remove her from parliament.

The guest list for the reception was approved by the Prime Minister’s department and Buckingham Palace. Refusing her admission would have countered the message King Charles tried to send about listening to Indigenous nations.

Silencing her shouts would not have worked, either. The Great Hall is not a parliamentary chamber – it is a function room, so the rules of the House of Representatives or the Senate could not be used to stop her speaking. Australia is meant to believe in free speech, after all.

She was not violent. The prime minister’s security team moved from their position around the podium to stop Thorpe coming closer than a dozen metres from the King. For all the shouting, she did not actually resist the guards when they escorted her from the room. She had achieved what she wanted.

Some are thankful for small mercies: there was no paint and no projectile. Thorpe did not interrupt the King’s speech and put him in a position where he had to pause or respond. Some in the room say that would have been mortifying. The King simply waited out the commotion by talking easily with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and even laughing quietly.

The protest may be a sign of things to come for the monarchy. King Charles flies within days to a Commonwealth meeting in Samoa where one issue is whether he should apologise for slavery in British colonies. All three candidates to head the Commonwealth want reparations. Thorpe gave an Australian voice to this global argument about history.

Buckingham Palace supports a review into the monarchy’s historical links to slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries, but an apology is an incendiary issue for British political leaders. The United Kingdom’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, says there will be no apology and no reparations.

Thorpe certainly won the media moment on Monday, but this will be an empty victory. She is angry but not effective. She gets headlines, but not outcomes. While she has the tactics needed to get attention, she lacks the political support required to gain lasting change.

In opposing the Indigenous Voice, for instance, she helped defeat an idea that would have handed more power to First Australians in the constitution. Whether you like it or not, it was a real change. A similar proposal is unlikely to emerge for some time, if ever.

One year later, Thorpe is still seeking headlines. Her legacy is likely to be her ability to combine a theatrical flourish with a practical failure.

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