Adam Bandt unlikely to apologise to Lidia Thorpe as ex-Greens senator is cleared of contempt
Former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has demanded an apology, claiming she ‘did nothing wrong’ when she ‘kissed’ a former Rebels bikie boss as she was cleared of contempt.
Greens Leader Adam Bandt is unlikely to apologise to Senator Lidia Thorpe after she was cleared of contempt over her “connection” with former Rebels bikie boss Dean Martin while serving on a law enforcement committee.
The former Greens senator demanded an apology from the Greens leader in the Senate on Tuesday night, saying she “did nothing wrong” when she “kissed” Mr Martin at an Invasion Day rally.
It comes after a senate privileges committee report into “possible obstruction” of the law enforcement committee found she did not disclose the committee’s activities to Mr Martin.
She sat on the committee between February 2021 and April 2022.
The report did however find Senator Thorpe should have declared her links to Mr Martin.
“The committee is of the view that Senator Thorpe should have declared her relationship with Mr Martin to the joint committee as a potential conflict of interest with her work on the committee,” the report said.
“However, on the basis of the evidence provided by the joint committee and Senator Thorpe, the committee is satisfied that no disclosure of such material has occurred and that the operations of the joint committee have not been impeded.
“The committee therefore concluded that a contempt should not be found in relation to the matters referred to it.”
Senator Thorpe told the Senate: “You demonised me, and today I have been cleared of any wrongdoing. I think I deserve an apology from the leader of the Greens for one because I lost my position (as deputy leader of the Greens in the Senate) as well.”
The former Greens Senator denied she dated Mr Martin altogether.
“We kissed once at a rally on the 26th of January. I had no idea who this person was or his background,” she told the Senate.
“I had no relationship with that person. I was given legal advice by the Greens lawyer that I had to say that I’d dated this person.”
In a letter provided to the privileges committee last year, Senator Thorpe said she met Mr Martin through Blak activism at a rally in January 2021 and briefly dated him in March.
A spokesperson for Mr Bandt said they understood from multiple sources what was in the letter was the true nature of events.
“The facts as we understand them are those that are set out in Senator Thorpe’s letter to the privileges committee. The information in the letter is consistent with the information Senator Thorpe and others provided to us,” the spokesperson said.
A teary Senator Thorpe told the upper house she had been vindicated by the committee’s recommendation.
“All you people thought that I had been running off with some biker gang,” she said.
“What kind of person do you think I am? I deserve an apology, from the leader of the Greens for one because I lost my position.”
With NCA NewsWire
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