Lidia Thorpe reveals threats to safety from white terrorist groups as she fumes over Peter Dutton

Newly independent Senator Lidia Thorpe claims she has been shut out of the process of designing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which even Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been privy to.

In the first wide-ranging interview since she announced her split from the Greens on Monday, the Indigenous politician also said Parliament had failed to protect her from threats by a far-right terrorist group.

Unlike the Greens who have thrown their support behind the proposed Voice to Parliament, Senator Thorpe opposes it because she believes the body would still recognise Crown sovereignty over Australia.

Senator Lidia Thorpe has conducted her first interview since splitting with the Greens in order to mount opposition to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament

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She claimed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had consulted with two working groups designing the Voice, while she has had no such access.   

‘I also question the government and the Prime Minister as to why Peter Dutton was invited to meet with the working groups and not the grassroots Black sovereign movement,’ she told the ABC on Tuesday.

‘We’ve never been invited. Well, I’ve never been invited.’ 

Senator Thorpe asserted the British came to Australia with the intent of wiping out the First Peoples but had ‘failed’ and the Voice perpetuates the ‘colonial lie’ of terra nullius (nobody’s land) which allowed the Crown to claim sovereignty. 

‘First Nations peoples have never ceded sovereignty and we challenge the Crown, the British Crown, who say they are sovereign, who think that they became sovereign when they arrived,’ Senator Thorpe said.

The Senator, here seen speaking at a rally on January 26 in Melbourne, says the British Crown’s claim of sovereignty over Australia is based on a lie

‘You don’t just rock up on someone else’s country and say, by the way, we are sovereign now. 

‘We put this colonial law over top of the oldest constitution on the planet.

‘First Peoples (were) here, so we are the ultimate sovereign power here. And this country needs to come to terms with that.’ 

The outspoken Senator made the surprising admission she would like to talk to King Charles III and would be on the ‘first plane’ to the UK if she could secure such a meeting. 

During her swearing in ceremony to Parliament in August last year, she referred to Queen Elizabeth as a ‘coloniser’.

Senator Thorpe hit back strongly at critics who she claimed had ‘demonised’ her for taking an independent course and said she had been subject to threats of violence from extremists.  

‘I think the parliament failed to protect me,’ she said.

Senator Thorpe was less than impressed that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (pictured) had consulted with groups designing the Voice whereas she hasn’t been invited to do so

Senator Thorpe, here seen at a January 26 rally in Melbourne, said that her outspoken views had seen her threatened by far-right terrorist groups

‘If we go back to January 26 last year, I had the far right threaten me, there’s been subsequent threats publicly by this far-right terrorist group. 

‘And I think that that’s just the reality of what it’s like for a black woman in a public space who’s got some power, the Greens could only – they Greens protected me in the best way that they could.’

Senator Thorpe added that the threats had been referred to the Australian Federal Police but the agency needed to give her ‘better updates on what’s going on with my safety.’

She labelled those questioning her use of public monies as demonstrating ‘systemic racism’ and ‘violence against black women’. 

Senator Thorpe acknowledged there would be challenges operating without a party structure behind her but insisted she had the right team to do the job.

‘I’m looking forward to a future of having a black voice that is not constrained by anything,’ she said.