More offensive than 'sex with a horse': Larissa Behrendt's Twitter slur against Bess Price

INDIGENOUS lawyer Larissa Behrendt is under fire after using her Twitter account to describe watching bestiality on television as "less offensive than Bess Price".

Bess Price

HIGH-profile indigenous lawyer Larissa Behrendt is under fire after using her Twitter account to describe watching bestiality on television as "less offensive than Bess Price", an Aboriginal woman in favour of the radical Northern Territory intervention.

Professor Behrendt made the comments after watching Ms Price on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night.

Writing in response to comments from Rhianna Patrick, a presenter of ABC local radio indigenous program Speaking Out, she tweeted: "I watched a show where a guy had sex with a horse and I'm sure it was less offensive than Bess Price."

Ms Price has been vocal about the high levels of violence in central Australian indigenous communities and supported the Northern Territory intervention, angering left-leaning indigenous leaders who consider her a traitor.

Speaking from Darwin, Ms Price told The Australian yesterday she was appalled by the comment. She accused Professor Behrendt, an Australian of the Year finalist, of trying to silence her because of her different views.

"I'm going to seek legal advice," she said. "This is worse than what she is accusing Andrew Bolt of."

News Limited columnist Bolt has spent the past fortnight in court fighting accusations that he vilified a group of nine Aborigines, including Professor Behrendt, on the basis of their race.

Professor Behrendt told The Australian yesterday the tweet was taken out of context and had been made as she watched the notoriously crude TV series Deadwood.

"I was watching ABC 2, which had Deadwood on it, which seemed pretty offensive," she said. "A flurry of tweets came through expressing outrage at the views Bess Price was expressing. In reply to one of them, I made a comment to someone who knew I was watching Deadwood that I thought it seemed what was on ABC 2 was less offensive than what was on ABC 1 (Q&A)".

"The tweet has been taken out of context. I did not mean any offence to Bess Price personally and I am on the record with views contrary to hers on the intervention and she knows that."

Ms Price said the comment showed how out of touch the indigenous academic was with central Australian Aborigines.

"I want what she has for my children," she said.

"The white blackfellas should be happy about the lifestyle they have. They should help us rather than trying to put a barrier between us and what we should be saying. Who does she think she is? I'm very angry about that. How dare she have a go about me without talking to me or confronting me face to face if she has a problem with me. They think that they can control us, that I shouldn't be commenting or having an opinion on indigenous issues.

"And the likes of her and others don't know anything about our people in the bush. Who are they to stand up and talk on behalf of our people. My background is totally different to hers, we are culturally different."

In an email sent to a network of people, Ms Price's husband Dave Price, writes: "It's people like her who control the message, going to organisations like the UN and Amnesty International. Can the Race Discrimination Act protect people like Bess from this sort of obscene vilification or does she get away with it because she identifies?"

Coalition indigenous affairs spokesman Nigel Scullion said he was appalled by the tweet.

"What do you say to a comment like that? It is just outrageous. She needs to apologise. This is about vilifying people who don't agree with you. It's about marginalising people and this is emblematic of the sort of behaviour that discourages people from speaking out."

The Twitter feed on the night contained many comments criticising Ms Price because of her support for the intervention, which was expressed on Q&A.

Professor Behrendt was also responding to a comment by Paddy Gibson, an Aboriginal rights activist who is co-editor of Solidarity magazine and a researcher with Jumbunna indigenous centre at the University of Technology, Sydney.

He accused Ms Price and her husband of making a profit from the Northern Territory Emergency Response. "Ha! Being offensive pays. BessP and her white husband make a $packet$ doing 'cultural awareness' for NTER," he tweeted.

Mr Gibson said: "It was fairly common knowledge . . . that they were offering cultural awareness training to government officials during the period of the intervention.

"I received a number of calls by people who were outraged and distressed by her comments on Q&A that night.

Ms Price and her husband are partners with Jajirdi Consultants, which provides cross-cultural training, community liaison and Warlpiri language services.

"We've been doing that a long time, before the intervention came along," Ms Price said.

"If I was making lots of money I would be living the high life."

Ms Price said during the intervention she did some interpreting and training for the government but it was far from profiteering.

"Larissa Behrendt has made money out of being a blackfella and she isn't even in dire straits like other blackfellas who need funding," she said.