26 March 2023

Human headline Thorpe's behaviour unbecoming of a senator in a democracy

| Ian Bushnell
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Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull pictured standing under a marquee where she was previously speaking.

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker (wearing red), spoke to supporters from a marquee. Photo: Travis Radford.

Lord knows what must have gone through the two police officers’ minds as they saw firebrand Senator Lidia Thorpe steaming menacingly towards them and the marquee they were guarding as anti-trans or pro-women activist (take your pick) Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull made her pitch to a handful of folk.

In the end, duty called, and they barred her way, grappling with her as she fell to the ground.

Was she knocked to the ground, which was slippery underfoot? Or did she let gravity do the work in classic passive-resistance style?

Either way, it wasn’t a good look for anyone, let alone a member of parliament.

Her claim that the police had “pulverised” her was clearly and characteristically over the top.

READ ALSO Lidia Thorpe clashes with police at anti-trans rally at Parliament House

The police now face a Professional Standards probe. The incident, which overshadowed everything else on the day, including the momentous announcement of the Voice question, has provoked a string of views.

Should she have been allowed to confront Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) and possibly disrupt her speech?

Could the police have been more genteel?

Should a senator behave that way?

No, probably not and no.

There was already a counter rally nearby where people could vent their spleen at Posie’s views and gather in solidarity with her targets.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe: political wild card. Photo: Greens.

Few people actually turned up to hear what Posie had to say.

For some reason, Senator Thorpe felt entitled to take it on herself to give her an earful, just the sort of conflict the media were there to capture.

No reporter was really there to provide a nuanced, balanced account of the arguments. They were there in case something happened after the nonsense in Melbourne when a bunch of Nazi numbskulls thought they would turn up to provide some muscle at a rally.

Disturbing as it is to know that there are actually people in Australia willing to wear that dark moniker, the chance of like-minded thugs appearing in Canberra was pretty slim.

As Andrew Barr said, Canberra would be the last place you would expect Posie to have an audience anyhow.

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I don’t want to get into the minefield that is the current transgender debate, but the principle of free speech needs to be maintained in all this.

The senator did not have the right to attempt to silence someone with the legal right to make a speech on land set aside outside Parliament for that purpose, no matter how repulsive she found it.

All speech is not necessarily equal. There are laws around hate speech and incitement to violence, but the speech did not meet that test and would have passed with hardly a mention.

All Senator Thorpe did was elevate the event to an unwarranted slot in the news and add to her own record of sorry behaviour.

Elected on a Green ticket, she now has another four or so years before she has to face the people, who will no doubt give her an opportunity to pursue another career.

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Again Ian, your LNP membership is on show with this article.
Were you there?
Why is it when a woman does not behave in a certain way it is “unbecoming” ? I hope not just Ms Thorpe, but everyone voices their opinions and continue to peaceful protests to enforce change!
Yet as we are all very aware of many of those that work on the hills behaviour is actually abhorrent and criminal.
Why is it Ms Thorpe by your view does not have the same right to free speech as that you afford Posie Parker?
The “minefield” you call it… its human rights. Trans rights are human rights.

Maybe its time to call a taxi and leave before you embarrass yourself further..

The Police did the right thing – she was charging at the nutter speaker, but we live under the rule of Law, Lidia Thorpe is out of her depth.

HiddenDragon8:02 pm 27 Mar 23

A politician who will have an uphill battle to be re-elected, and who will turn 50 later this year, should not be frittering away her time on the national stage on stunts more befitting a self-indulgent student politician.

This is not to suggest that Lidia Thorpe should morph into another house-trained bourgeois radical of the sort who gets wheeled out on a regular basis to entertain and pander to the affectations of ABC audiences – we already have a surfeit of those.

Rather, she could do far more to advance the causes she espouses if her public contributions were more about powerful, reasoned words, which make comfortable people feel less comfortable about the status quo and their place in it, and less about stunts which do more to entrench opinions than challenge them.

@Hidden Dragon
You make some very good points, but somehow I don’t think Sen Thorpe is in this for the long haul. She obviously has an agenda which definitely does not conform to the main stream conventions. She probably doesn’t even care that she is alienating the very constituents who gave her the leg up. I wouldn’t be surprised if leaving the Greens was her intention from the start. She may not have the “senatorial persona” of may of her fellow MPs but she appears to be street smart and I suspect she’s a survivor. One things for sure, it’s going to be an interesting 5 years or so.

Females have a right to safe spaces away from biological males, which includes female only toilets, change rooms and female only sports. These places are for females only.
Anyone who disagrees with this is sexist and anti-female.
Thorpe should be out there encouraging females and supporting the rights of females.
The greens will be glad she is not in their party anymore.

You clearly no very little about the Greens. They are supporters of the Trans community. They believe Trans people should have the same rights as everyone else.

GrumpyGrandpa5:57 pm 27 Mar 23

Now that Ms Thorpe is no longer, a Green, eventually, she’ll become a nobody.

The shame is that until 2028, the taxpayer will continue to pay her $217,000 per year.

@GrumpyGrandpa
Yep, same as Sen Hanson

GrumpyGrandpa8:43 pm 27 Mar 23

Give me Senator Hanson any day over Senator Thorpe.

Hanson is racist and disgusting in her stunts. Look at the people she has in her party… says it all.

She played up to the media and bunged it on and crawled off like a dog. Feel so sorry for the Police in this incident as they will no doubt be undeservedly blamed.

@Ian Douglas
“crawled off like a dog” I’m surprised you didn’t add a descriptive adjective

Thorpe’s behaviour is a disgrace. We have the right to free speech and peaceful protest in this country even if we don’t agree with what is being said. The woman acts like a schoolyard bully and her behaviour is not what I would expect of a parliamentarian. With any luck she will not be voted back in when the next election is held. Just because she is an Indigenous Person doesn’t give her the right to behave as she pleases without regard to other people’s rights.

Max Scheckenbac1:19 pm 27 Mar 23

Having watch the footage, there is a woman with a red vest on that appears to grab senator thorpe and pull her backwards.

She looks at the camera sees she has been caught on camera and then leaves the seen of the crime.

Putting “anti- trans” then “woman right” protesters second show how biased the reporting is. At the Riotact.

Good to see world athletic is banning men massacring women in women’s sport. Some sanity is coming back.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/65051900.amp

I agree. As a woman I find it an insult to womanhood when a man claims to be a woman.

As a woman, I find it abhorrent SOME in the community are so hateful towards any of the Queer community.

Here we go again. An Aboriginal woman tried to tell a visiting English woman that she is not welcome, gets shoved to the ground by a policeman (I saw the video) and now we have a likely white male telling her how to behave. Get off case and her land, Ian Bushnell!

So in your world it is okay for visiting English women to get attacked by some crazy senator?

Oh Dear….here we go again…. you believe this faux senator thinks she has the right to attack another person. PS. The media should white-ant the antics of this faux senator!

@mitro
“white-ant the antics of” a black Senator … definitely a message in that

Hi Ann, as someone who carries out trades work in rural and isolated aboriginal communities, it is often expressed to me, by aboriginal elders, that they do not own the land, they live with the land. The land is not theirs, it is for all, white, black or otherwise.

When did Ms Thorpe “attack” Posie Parker???

The biggest miscarriage of justice in Australian history was Pauline Hanson’s time in jail. Don’t let this woman’s antics distract you from that.

@Sam Oak
“The biggest miscarriage of justice in Australian history was Pauline Hanson’s time in jail.”
If I didn’t know you were serious I’d congratulate you on your wonderful sense of humour, Sam.
She was jailed for electoral fraud – i.e. she broke the law.
She and David Etteridge “… fraudulently declared the supporters as party members.”
Pauline Hanson may be your idol, but even idols have to obey the law.
Thorpe was removed from the scene and not charged – i.e. she did not break the law. What exactly don’t you understand about that?

Electoral fraud is just that. FRAUD.

There is nothing unjust about it.

It was overturned on appeal meaning she was innocent. She spent an unlawful 11 days in jail, if she was guilty of election fraud she would have been sentenced to 3 years behind bars. As Donald Trump says all you left wing nuts believe in FAKE NEWS.

@Sam Oak
Yes, I concede that Hanson’s conviction was overturned on appeal (though why you even raised it in this thread is a mystery).
Nevertheless, my question still stands – Thorpe did not break the law. What exactly don’t you understand about that?

Great article, well written. She took a dive.

Ian Bushnell, were you too frightened to get the facts from.the female speakers on the day?

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