Lidia Thorpe has ripped up a paper copy of the Senate motion censuring her protest against King Charles, promising “I’ll do it again” and saying she is not concerned about the parliamentary rebuke.
The independent senator was censured by the Labor and Coalition on Monday, as was the United Australia party senator Ralph Babet after he posted a tweet containing several offensive slurs.
Both senators blamed flight delays from Melbourne for them not being in the chamber or speaking in their defence at the time of the unexpected censure motions, which Thorpe said were brought on with little warning. She claimed she only received notice of the motion against her on Monday morning, as she was boarding a plane to Canberra.
“If the colonising king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again,” Thorpe said.
“I was denied my right to be in that chamber whilst everybody else voted to shut me down.”
The Senate passed a censure motion 46-12 against Thorpe for her interruption of a reception for King Charles, where she yelled “you committed genocide against our people” and “you are not our king”.
Babet last week celebrated the Trump US election victory with a social media post using racist and offensive terms. The tweet appeared to have been deleted from Babet’s account on Monday.
Babet told Nine newspapers the tweet “may have been taken out of context” despite the senator’s apparent defence of it to Guardian Australia earlier in the day.
Guardian Australia contacted Babet’s office for comment.
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“The radical authoritarian left has taken offence for a tweet which did not mention, target or reference any individual. Maybe they should have considered censuring my colleagues who regularly and consistently direct abuse and vitriol towards other people and our great nation,” Babet told Guardian Australia.
“The selective outrage and hypocrisy from the far left is far more offensive to the general public than my simple tweet.”
The government Senate leader and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the government “reluctantly” moved both censure motions, accusing Thorpe and Babet of seeking attention with “actions and stunts designed to create storms on social media”.
“These are actions which seek to incite outrage and grievance, actually to boost their own profiles, and this is part of a trend that we do see internationally, but quite frankly we don’t need here in Australia,” Wong said.
She said both motions were about “standards of respect” expected of senators.
The text of the censure motions were critical of Thorpe’s “disrespectful and disruptive protest, and called on Babet to be censured “for his inflammatory use of hate speech, designed to drive division for his own political benefit”.
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Thorpe’s censure motion also said the Senate “does not regard it as appropriate for Senator Thorpe to represent the Senate as a member of any delegation during the life of this parliament”.
The Coalition Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, said the opposition backed both motions. But the Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who called Babet a “mate”, said he opposed both motions because neither senator had a chance to speak, calling it a “kangaroo court”.
Thorpe arrived after her censure motion had passed, interrupting the debate over Babet’s censure.
“Why wasn’t I allowed to be here?” Thorpe could be heard calling out.
In a press conference, Thorpe claimed she had only been told of the looming censure on Monday morning, while en route to Canberra. She claimed she asked for the motion to be delayed until she could arrive.
Wong, addressing Canavan’s concerns earlier, said most senators had been able to make it to the chamber on time for parliament’s opening on Monday morning, and said Thorpe and Babet would have a chance to speak later in the day.
“They don’t mind what I said, it’s how I said it. They need to check themselves,” Thorpe said.
“I’m not one to be shut down … you’ve got three and a half years left of me.”
Thorpe ripped up a paper copy of the censure motion against her, saying she would “use it for kindling”.
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