Charges laid over Lidia Thorpe’s MCG assault

Police have laid charges against a woman over an alleged assault that left Lidia Thorpe suffering spinal injuries that rendered her unable to attend parliament for months.

Senator Lidia Thorpe during her protest against the King on Monday. Picture: Lukas Coch/NewsWire

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Police have laid charges against a woman over an alleged assault that left Lidia Thorpe suffering spinal injuries that rendered her unable to attend parliament for months, amid the political fallout from her foul-mouthed tirade at King Charles.

As Anthony Albanese slammed Senator Thorpe’s protest in front of the King and Queen Camilla as “rude, outrageous and entirely inappropriate”, Victoria Police has revealed a 27-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of recklessly causing injury and three counts of unlawful assault over the May 25 incident.

“Investigators allege that a woman assaulted another woman outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground after an AFL match about 10.30pm,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said. “The woman sustained minor injuries during the incident.”

Senator Thorpe said she had been “pushed to disclose” details of the neck injury that required spinal surgery following the alleged assault, after The Australian inquired about her sporadic record of attendance at parliament.

The Victorian senator has come under increasing political pressure after her outburst on Monday, with the incident setting in motion a chain of events that led her to admit she had deliberately misspoken her oath when sworn into parliament.

Speaking in Samoa where he was attending a meeting of Commonwealth leaders on Friday, the Prime Minister dismissed Senator Thorpe’s display, during which she yelled “you are not our king” and “f..k the colony”, as attention-seeking.

“Lidia Thorpe’s outburst was of course, Lidia Thorpe, and she achieved her objective, because I’m getting a question about it now,” Mr Albanese said.

“I thought it was rude, outrageous and entirely inappropriate.”

Victoria Police allege the Preston woman assaulted Senator Thorpe outside the MCG after the Dreamtime game between Essendon and Richmond.

Responding to questions about her poor attendance record at parliament after being absent for more than a third of sitting days and voting in just 45 per cent of divisions this year, Senator Thorpe said she had been “ordered by the doctor not to travel and could not attend parliament”.

“I sustained serious nerve and spinal injuries in my neck, which required spinal surgery and a plate to be inserted in the back of my neck,” she said.

The revelation that Senator Thorpe mispronounced her oath of allegiance to the queen’s “hairs” rather than “heirs” ignited debate over whether she was eligible to sit in parliament, with Coalition senators calling for her position to be reviewed.

Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham wrote to Senate president Sue Lines on Thursday to ask that the constitutional questions surrounding Senator Thorpe’s eligibility be resolved, and more significant deterrents to “disorderly conduct” introduced.

Peter Dutton said the constitutional issues were “really serious”. “You swear an oath of allegiance and under section 42 in the Constitution … by her own admission, she hasn’t made the proper oath,” he told Channel 9.

“She hasn’t taken that proper oath and I think there’s an issue for the president of the Senate to address here. And the Prime Minister shrugs it off because he’s more worried about Lidia Thorpe’s vote in the Senate.”

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said he doubted Senator Thorpe would be re-elected, arguing she was “just seeking attention”.