Thorpe’s fiery rhetoric a dangerous game for Australian politics
Thorpe pledges that she will fight back “through our collective action, our resistance and through protest”.
Well, just because I’m a white, male, colonialist taxpayer doesn’t mean I can’t spot a publicity-seeking poseur and say when she has crossed an unacceptable line.
Like her frequent media stunts and addresses to protesters, Thorpe’s online presence is replete with the language of righteous struggle, resistance, fighting and protesting against an “unjust colonial government” with its “militarised police forces”.
Then there is Thorpe’s small but vocal support base. A group called the Black Peoples Union welcomed the senator’s defection from the Greens in February 2023: “We are excited to see what comes now from Senator Thorpe and how we can together continue to stoke the fires of our Sovereignty and achieve what we rightfully deserve.”
More on stoking fires in a minute. Those interested in the ideological roots of the pro-Palestinian protest movement and its supposed connections to Indigenous Australians should read the Iran Solidarity Statement from the Black Peoples Union issued on June 26.
It turns out that backing the mullahs of Tehran and opposing the colonialist government in Canberra is part of the one struggle against imperialism. “We know who the enemy is: the empire that occupies, imprisons and profits from our suffering. This is not a time for neutrality. It is a time for alignment and clarity. It is a time for militancy. It is a time for resistance.”
Likewise, the Blak Sovereign Movement campaigned with Thorpe against the voice referendum. It couches its activism as “work on the front lines of the battle against colonisation”.
This is the context in which to judge Thorpe’s claim made on Sunday that she was merely speaking metaphorically when she said she’d “burn down Parliament House to make a point”.
The thing about metaphors is that people can read and act on the language in different ways.
I do not think Thorpe will personally try to burn down Parliament House – her Senate job is a nice little earner after all – but she relentlessly talks up the language of conflict and justified resistance.
Are there people on the fringes of the protest movement who might see Thorpe’s message as a legitimate call to action? Absolutely. Have we seen evidence of a growing number of violent actions against politicians, destruction and vandalism of government offices, synagogues and Jewish businesses? Yes.
Last Friday Anthony Albanese pointed to the rise in threats of violence directed against politicians. This followed a court hearing of a Queensland man currently charged with “using a carriage service to make threats to kill” the Prime Minister.
Albanese said: “The security issues that I face are far more acute than 10 years ago, five years ago, certainly a lot more acute than when I was first elected.
“And there’s no place for violence. There’s no place for violent discourse either because we can’t normalise these sort of threats being made and think that that is business as usual, because what we know is that does lead to real tragedy.”
Thorpe’s comment to “burn down Parliament House” showcases exactly the type of violent discourse Albanese worries about.
The reality of a threat to the parliament and the people who work in it will, of course, be disavowed by Thorpe. The senator for the Blak Sovereign Movement plays a dangerous game flirting with rhetorical violence at the same time as she retreats from the potential consequences of her words.
Six factors point to the growing risk of political violence in Australia.
First, we’ve seen the rise of an angry and aggressive pro-Palestinian protest movement. Not all protesters are extremists but there clearly is a hard-core radical group hiding behind others.
Second, for reasons that no politician or police leader has explained, these protests have been tolerated in ways that enable extreme elements to keep pushing the boundaries.
Third, the Jewish community has been openly and repeatedly targeted. It is to Australia’s national shame that we tolerated this harassment, with key government political leaders only reluctantly acting.
Fourth, the government has failed not only to defend the Jewish community but also to explain to the Australian people how it is responding to increasing threats to members of parliament.
Strong words that incite violent action cannot be countered by weak words that appear to tolerate extremism.
Albanese continues to give the impression that government is overlooking extremist behaviour because there is political value to do so among Muslim communities and the extremist left.
All this sets the stage for a darker development.
My fifth point is that talk of violence may lead to violence. Social media plays a role here by giving a platform to people whom the police describe as “fixated individuals”, helping to establish communities of like-minded extremists.
Finally, protests are focusing on structures such as the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and parliamentary buildings as media backdrops. A prudent Australian approach following Thorpe’s comments would be to review the security of Parliament House, government departments and other iconic Australian buildings.
In many cases these structures were built for a less conflicted age. Parliament in Canberra has had several security upgrades through the years.
But in a building where access to the people’s house is part of our democratic heritage, maintaining security is difficult.
Forty-one years ago this week, the Provisional IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference, killing five and injuring 31. Their target, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, narrowly escaped. The IRA later warned: “We only have to be lucky once. You have to be lucky every time.”
How lucky does Albanese feel? He clearly has been briefed by his security detail on the need to change how he engages in public events. This is a sad development in Australian politics but there’s no point hankering after the past. We must do more to secure our politicians and institutions.
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The tragedy for senator Lidia Thorpe is that she is compelled to take the King’s shilling while she represents the Blak Sovereign Movement: “The truth is, this colony is built on stolen land, stolen wealth and stolen lives.”