‘Silenced’ Greens senator Lidia Thorpe accused of ‘grandstanding’ tactics on Juukan Gorge inquiry

Lidia Thorpe’s claims she was ‘silenced’ in a Juukan Gorge inquiry rubbished by her parliamentary colleagues as ‘absolutely not true’.

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe. Picture: AAP

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe says she was silenced during a parliamentary inquiry into the Juukan Gorge scandal, a claim dismissed by Coalition and Labor MPs who have accused of her grandstanding.

Senator Thorpe made the comments in social media posts on Tuesday following a hearing of an inquiry into the destruction of the 46,000 year old caves in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

“Being the only Blak Woman on the Juukan Enquiry, my time is limited due to the boys club. #NotOk,” Senator Thorpe wrote.

“Questioning Minerals Council and I’m silenced.”

But Liberal MP Warren Entsch, chairman of the Northern Australia committee which was hearing the evidence on Tuesday, said the claims were untrue.

“In one word: bullshit,” Mr Entsch told The Australian.

“The committees are supposed to work co-operatively together to get the best possible outcome, not trying to create some sort of controversy by grandstanding for themselves.”

Being the only Blak Woman on the Juukan Enquiry, my time is limited due to the boys club. #NotOk

— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@lidia__thorpe) July 6, 2021

This photo taken on May 15, 2020 shows Juukan Gorge in Western Australia. Picture: AFP / PKKP Aboriginal Corporation

Labor senator Pat Dodson, a Yawuru man from WA, backed Mr Entsch, and said “nobody was silenced” during the inquiry. Mr Entsch, the member for Leichhardt in North Queensland, said the claim from Senator Thorpe was part of an ongoing problem the committee was having with her since she had been “handballed” the position by Greens senator Rachel Siewert.

He added that she appeared to have no interest in working with her parliamentary colleagues.

“One of the problems that we’re having with her all the way through is her activism. She’s making long, ambling statements that have no relevance to the terms of reference,” he said.

“The more outrageous she can be, the more happy she is, because she just shares it on her own social media platforms. She’s playing to her own audience, she’s not interested in finding solutions.”

Senator Thorpe didn’t respond to accusations that she’d fabricated claims of being silenced, instead saying there didn’t appear to be “any transparency on how time is allocated” between senators.

She said the work of the committee was “too important for any time to be wasted”. “As an Aboriginal woman – and often the only woman at the hearings, and as a Traditional Owner – it’s absolutely critical that the committee gets on with its job, preventing the destruction of country, not blokey chit chat that disrespects the committee, Traditional Owners,” she said.

Labor MP Warren Snowdon had been standing in as chair for Mr Entsch for sessions on Tuesday, and labelled the claims, “complete nonsense” and “absurd”.

He said both indigenous committee members – senators Thorpe and Dodson – started off questioning at every hearing.