Former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has accused her former colleagues of bullying and other parliamentarians of sexual assault in incendiary claims.
The Victorian senator said she outlined extensive bullying allegations in a formal written complaint in late 2022 to Greens leader Adam Bandt and the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service – but had heard nothing back.
Senator Thorpe quit the Greens in February to sit as an independent. She said it was her goal to “grow and amplify” the black sovereignty movement, in a move that came amid multiple reports about internal party conflict over the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
“I didn’t leave over the referendum. I left over irreconcilable differences,” Senator Thorpe told the Nine newspapers on Friday.
“There’s a few senators within the Greens who undermined me and hurt me and I’ve had to report that to [PWSS].”
Senator Thorpe told Nine that several Greens senators had “caused a lot of harm”.
On the ABC later on Friday, Senator Thorpe went into further detail.
“I was patted on the head in the chamber by a Greens senator and I was completely demoralised – and even thinking about that still, you know, hurts me. I’ve never been patted on the head by anybody and I’m not
nobody’s little black girl and that’s how I felt. I felt belittled,” she said.
“I was sexually assaulted four times in my first six months. People wonder why I get a little bit frustrated, but I’ve had to endure so much in my time in this place and … now I’m free to say what I like.”
She said the sexual assault and harassment were not from Greens colleagues.
“The Jenkins review was meant to eradicate all of those kinds of behaviours, and I just have faith in that review and my participation in that review. Certainly I was very honest and frank about all of the things I’ve just said today,” she said.
Because of the ongoing formal complaints process, she refused to name the senators or how many were involved in the alleged bullying.
“I raised it with the Greens. I raised it with the leader. I said, ‘I can’t deal with this any more. I’m being undermined. I’m being bullied. And it’s got to stop’. It didn’t stop,” she said.
Mr Bandt’s office has confirmed to the ABC that he was aware of Senator Thorpe’s complaints. But it rejected her claims of bullying.
“Mr Bandt worked with Senator Thorpe on the issues she raised, including arranging an opportunity to have her concerns addressed through PWSS mediation, but Senator Thorpe left the Greens before mediation occurred,” the spokesperson said.
After Senator Thorpe quit, Mr Bandt said he was “truly sad” to see her leave, and called her a “fighter for her people”.
The PWSS said it was a confidential service and would not comment on the allegations.
Senator Thorpe’s public allegations come after she earlier this week demanded a public apology after a probe into an undisclosed “relationship” with an ex-bikie found she was not in contempt of parliament.
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Senator Thorpe on her 'relationship' with ex-bikie
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The Senate privileges committee found that while Senator Thorpe should have disclosed her relationship, she didn’t receive any relevant sensitive information. Its report was tabled late on Tuesday.
In the Senate shortly afterwards, Senator Thorpe said she had never actually dated motorcycle gang leader Dean Martin, and referred to him as “some black man”.
She lost the Greens deputy leadership in the fallout from the revelations, and claimed this week she had been forced to admit she and Mr Martin had been an item.
“I had no relationship with that person. I was given legal advice by the Greens lawyer to say that I had dated this person,” she told the Senate.
“I got a call from that person that said, ‘Ah, did we date?’.
“We kissed once at a rally on the 26th of January. I had no idea who this person was or his background.”
Senator Thorpe referred herself to the Senate’s privileges committee over allegations she failed to disclose the relationship despite sitting on a parliamentary law enforcement committee.
A teary Senator Thorpe said the committee’s recommendation that she not be held in contempt vindicated her.
“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.”
On Thursday, Senator Thorpe told the ABC she was still awaiting an apology from Mr Bandt and the media.
“How many times did you see me riding around on a Harley-Davidson? I’ve only ever ridden one once and I was quite petrified,” she said.
“I think there needs to be apologies from quite a number of people. No, I haven’t had apologies from anybody.”
Mr Bandt defended his handling of the situation.
“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,” he said.
Despite Senator Thorpe’s latest allegations, her office and Mr Bandt’s insisted on Friday that the pair maintained a good working relationship.
-with AAP
