Lidia Thorpe takes the Greens — and her supporters — for a ride

Senator Lidia Thorpe at Parliament House. Picture: Getty

Another week, another drama in the form of Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe, who as you know was returned to the Senate last year by members of the Gullible Nation, otherwise known as Melbourne inner-city progressives. They donated to her campaign, handed out pamphlets, knocked on doors, and effusively proclaimed at their little goat cheese soirees that the Greens senator had enriched the party with her knowledge of country.

It was much the same when she gained preselection in 2020 to fill the casual vacancy following the resignation of former Greens leader Richard Di Natale. Back then Thorpe was all smiles and honey. “I’ll be a senator for all Victorians,” she promised. “It’s an incredible honour and a huge responsibility to be chosen by Greens members as the next senator for Victoria,” she said. “I won’t let you down.”

Needless to say, she was full of – well, schmooze. “I will be a senator for all of us,” she declared in her maiden speech to parliament. “I invite you all to come on this journey with me, a journey of truth-telling, healing and justice.”

It was a journey all right in the sense that Thorpe took her supporters and the party for a ride. Only after the election did she reveal her real purpose was to “infiltrate” parliament, her self-appointed role being to “question the illegitimate occupation of the colonial system in this country”. Last week she resigned from the Greens to join the crossbench, declaring she intended to “amplify the Black Sovereign Movement”.

Lidia Thorpe takes part in a march from Parliament House to Flinder's Street Station during the ‘Invasion Day’ protest. Picture: Getty

A sovereign movement? A circus movement more like it. But that has been typical of Thorpe’s puerile behaviour ever since she entered federal parliament, whether it was labelling the late Queen Elizabeth II a ‘coloniser’ when she swore her oath or delighting in the “colonial system burning” when Indigenous protesters allegedly deliberately set fire to Old Parliament House. Her contrived anger and other theatrics are such that, by comparison, she makes Sofia Coppola seem like a great actress.

Not surprisingly, Melbourne’s bien pensants, having been played for fools, are miffed. Human rights activist and barrister Julian Burnside, who unsuccessfully ran for preselection against Thorpe in 2020, told The Age she should leave parliament, given she was elected on a Greens ticket. While not a fan of Burnside, I do think he was the most appropriate candidate. After all, Greens constituencies comprise largely wealthy voters seeking to assuage their white guilt by waving their progressive credentials at every opportunity.

As for Thorpe’s future on the crossbench, there have been some amusing predictions. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported: “One former Greens colleague expects Thorpe will quit within a year or two because she doesn’t actually enjoy being a politician”. Turn it up. Her annual salary is $217,000 plus allowances, and her term does not end until 2028. That’s not to say it’s money for jam, because Thorpe will be very active for the remainder of her time in parliament. You can be sure she will visit just about every part of the country in her quest to amplify the Black Sovereign Movement, provided her destination is within cooee of a Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt addresses the media after the resignation of Lidia Thorpe. Picture: Getty

Usually the defection of a sitting member results in swift and strident demands by party members for them to resign their seat. Greens leader Adam Bandt is an interesting case study in this respect. Far from being the firebrand, he is behaving like the office wuss. Interviewed on RN Breakfast just days after Thorpe’s departure, he repeatedly said he was feeling “sad”. And so was his performance. Asked by Patricia Karvelas whether Thorpe should have vacated her seat, Bandt could only lamely offer that she had “made her decision”.

His pusillanimity and reticence are even more puzzling when one considers that Bandt had offered extraordinary concessions to Thorpe to try to dissuade her from leaving, including allowing her to remain as First Nations spokeswoman despite her opposition to the Indigenous voice to parliament.

And it is not as if Bandt was a hard taskmaster to Thorpe during her tenure. He defended her repeatedly, despite her juvenile stunts and her bullying manner. He did everything to appease her, including moving the Australian flag away from view during press conferences, claiming it represented “dispossession and the lingering pains of colonisation”. So why isn’t he now at least calling her out for disloyalty?

Lidia Thorpe at the Greens election night party in 2017. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

In short, Bandt fears indictment by the divisive racial politics that he himself has fomented and championed for so long. There is a narrative that applies to situations like this, which is both militant and irrebuttable. It goes as follows. Lidia is a brave and strong First Nations woman who is forced to leave the Greens because she was not able to fully speak her truth. Adam, the party leader, has condoned this situation as he had not provided a culturally safe space for Lidia. This happened despite Adam’s enthusiastic pledge in 2021 “to decolonise” the party’s “platform and language”.

Clearly this raises questions about whether Adam should continue as leader. The circumstances of what led to Lidia’s appalling treatment must be publicly explored. What’s that you say, Adam? No, I’m sorry, but it’s irrelevant you and Lidia signed a nondisclosure agreement. We are going to have a mini-Makarrata, and the subject matter is the structurally racist party which you preside over. Truth-telling is painful, but it will ensure justice and allow everyone to heal. Sound familiar?

It is a case of poetic justice, and not only at Bandt’s expense. In addition to peddling racial disharmony for opportunistic reasons, he and his colleagues have long demonised big business and high-income earners in the name of social justice, incessantly demanding they be taxed exorbitantly under the slogan of paying their fair share. Meanwhile these same ideologues, some of whom have never held a job outside politics, enjoy a privileged existence on the public purse, funded largely by the corporates they despise.

Having long sponged off others, the Greens are dismayed and angry at discovering someone has stolen from them. Say what you like about Thorpe, but I am enjoying this spectacle of the master grifters being grifted.