Senator Lidia Thorpe’s abhorrent behaviour reflects the declining respect for authority across society
Anyone watching the antics in Canberra over the past couple of days will be astonished by some of the behaviour of people in the house. If this is how parliamentarians are behaving, Julie Cross writes, God help us.
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Teachers are facing a new breed of kids, who don’t want to sit still or participate in lessons and whose first instinct is to lash out when they don’t like something they’re being told.
The parents are just as bad, which is why the number of teachers suffering abuse in the workplace is skyrocketing.
This week I spoke to Theresa Dicke, an academic from the Australian Catholic University, who studies the wellbeing of principals, many of whom claim classrooms are becoming increasingly dangerous.
Ms Dicke blames the violence on a “societal crisis” where there is a declining respect for authority.
Which brings me to Senator Lidia Thorpe, who, while not violent, also throws a tanty when she hears something she doesn’t like.
This week she didn’t like what Senator Pauline Hanson had to say. She’s not the first person who has disagreed with Ms Hanson and, normally, what ensues is a robust debate.
In this instance, it resulted in Ms Thorpe ripping up some papers and throwing them at her and then flicking the middle finger as she stomped out of the chamber.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong moved a motion to suspend Ms Thorpe for her “offensive gestures”, saying this “behaviour would not be tolerated in any workplace, and we cannot tolerate it in our workplace”.
Did Ms Thorpe go home and reflect on her behaviour and apologise? Er no, because in her mind she’s always right. Instead, she barged into the press gallery while suspended from the chamber to shout pro-Palestinian slogans.
When she was shut out of there, she claimed she was being silenced, she claimed racism, she claimed she was a victim of a colonial institution.
In the end extra security guards were called to man the doors in case the predictably unpredictable Ms Thorpe decided to partake in some more attention-seeking bad behaviour.
Anyone watching the antics in Canberra over the past couple of days will be astonished by some of the behaviour of people in the house because it is not just Ms Thorpe who has been named and shamed.
The speaker of the lower house, Milton Dick, became exasperated by the behaviour of some MPs during Question Time yesterday.
One repeat offender was Casey MP Aaron Violi, who made 17 interruptions before being kicked out. The Minister for Resources Madeleine King was also ejected.
If this is how parliamentarians are behaving, no wonder our classrooms are full of little Veruca Salts, stamping their feet and throwing a fit if they don’t get what they want.
Fast forward 20 years … God help us.
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Originally published as Senator Lidia Thorpe’s abhorrent behaviour reflects the declining respect for authority across society
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