Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has launched a scathing defence of her former colleague Lidia Thorpe after the Senate moved to censure the senator over comments she made about ‘burning down Parliament House’.
The motion, brought forward by Liberal senator Anne Ruston, condemned Thorpe for remarks made at a Melbourne rally on October 12 in which she said: ‘If I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point… I am not there to make friends’.
The Australian Federal Police have since confirmed they are examining whether Thorpe’s words may have breached Commonwealth law.
Ruston said the censure was necessary to uphold standards of behaviour and workplace safety, arguing that parliamentarians must not use language that could be perceived as inciting violence.
‘Senators should not, in any forum, be threatening to burn down Parliament House,’ Ruston told the chamber.
‘They should not be threatening to burn down anybody’s workplace. Australians rightly expect that their representatives are careful with their public commentary.’
But Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi hit back, denouncing the motion as ‘performative outrage’ and accusing her colleagues of living in a ‘parallel universe’.
‘You would have thought that many of the Coalition MPs and senators and Labor MPs and senators would perhaps understand the meaning of “burning down the house” – given that many of you white people in here claim English as your first language, you would actually know what this means,’ she said.
‘For heaven’s sake, this is a metaphor. It is a figure of speech.’
Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi hit back has accused her colleagues of living in a ‘parallel universe’ after a motion to censure Lidia Thorpe was raised in parliament
Faruqi said the phrase was symbolic of liberation and freedom, referencing the Talking Heads’ 1980s song Burning Down the House as an example.
She accused her colleagues of weaponising Thorpe’s words to silence an outspoken First Nations woman.
‘Maybe some of you have heard the Talking Heads song ‘Burning Down the House’, which is about liberation. But no. Instead, you’ve twisted and distorted her words for your own political theatre,’ Faruqi said.
When other senators voiced their disapproval, Faruqi claimed she was being racially discriminated against by her colleagues in the chamber.
‘This is how you treat people of colour,’ she said.
‘So I’m not surprised your ranting back at me.’
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie hit back, slamming the Greens for inferring the censure against Thorpe had been motivated by the colour of her skin.
‘This chamber, despite its broad diversity of political views, only censures senators when it believes – despite our differences – that a senator has brought this chamber and this parliament into disrepute,’ she said.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie (pictured) hit back, slamming the Greens for inferring the censure against Lidia Thorpe had been motivated by the colour of her skin
‘It is not a decision this chamber should take lightly; nor is it a decision that this chamber today takes lightly.
‘But the fact is that Senator Thorpe last month stood up in the public arena at a pro-Palestinian rally in Melbourne and said, ‘Burn down Parliament House.’
‘That ain’t no song lyric that I’ve ever heard. Senator Thorpe was being very clear to the people she was speaking to – because this is on form for Senator Thorpe.’
McKenzie said while she didn’t believe Thorpe was going to walk into Parliament House armed with matches and a lighter, ‘it was about incitement’.
‘Let’s look at the context in which this senator was making these comments – feeding, on social media, aggrieved people who are given one side of the Gaza war’s petition, feeding that hate, feeding that anger, fuelling division in our community,’ she said.
