Speculation that Lidia Thorpe would part ways with the Greens had been around for several weeks – long enough to look like it would remain speculation. But on the first parliamentary sitting day of 2023, Thorpe ended the chatter abruptly by ejecting from the Greens and shifting to the crossbench.
People with long memories might feel a sense of deja vu. Back in February 2017, there was another headline-grabbing political defection to mark the opening of the parliamentary year. Cory Bernardi broke ranks with the Liberal party to form his own conservative movement after many weeks of speculation about his intentions.
