Firebrand Senator Lidia Thorpe claims she was sexually assaulted by fellow pollies after entering parliament and ‘patted on the head’ by a Green colleague: ‘I’m nobody’s black girl’
- Lidia Thorpe opened up about bullying allegations
- He said the Green MP patted him on the head.
Lidia Thorpe has claimed she was patted on the head by a Green MP leaving her feeling slighted and that she was sexually assaulted four times by Labor and Liberal figures.
The indigenous senator made the claims on Friday when addressing reports that she filed formal harassment complaints before withdrawing from the Greens last month.
Ms Thorpe claimed she was bullied by two of her colleagues with an incident including a member patting her on the head in a demeaning manner.
She also alleged that she was sexually assaulted four times by Labor and Liberal figures in the first six months of becoming a member of parliament.
Lidia Thorpe has claimed she was patted on the head by a Green MP leaving her feeling slighted and that she was sexually assaulted four times by Labor and Liberal figures.
Ms Thorpe claimed that the patting on the head was one of the reasons that prompted her to resign from the Greens on 6 February.
“A senator from the Greens patted me on the head on camera,” he said.
“I was completely demoralized and even thinking about it still, you know, it hurts. No one has ever patted me on the head and I’m no one’s black.
Ms Thorpe said she initially tried to ignore the incident, but the bullying “got worse”.
“I just took it under my chin and thought, you know, don’t make too much noise in here and just go with the flow,” he said.
Ms Thorpe said she took her complaint to Green leader Adam Bandt and the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS).
A spokesman for the office of Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party was aware of the workplace complaints but did not believe they amounted to harassment.
They added that the party had arranged for PWSS mediation to address the grievances prior to Senator Thorpe’s decision to leave the party.
“After a meeting between the parties, it was understood that the issue had been resolved,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Thorpe said she was ‘undermined and harassed’ and felt unsafe in the workplace, also alleging that this had continued despite her switch to cross-banking.
“When the news of my resignation came out, everyone thought it was just about the (indigenous) voice,” he said.
The indigenous senator made the claims Friday when addressing reports that she filed formal bullying complaints before withdrawing from the Greens last month.
“I wanted to correct the record… I was undermined, intimidated and insecure, and I raised that several times, to no avail, so I went ahead with the parliamentary workplace support people.”
Ms Thorpe also claimed that she was sexually assaulted by people associated with the Labor and Liberal parties during her first six months in parliament.
She said she reported the incidents to the same support body at the workplace.
Expanding on a “very difficult time for me in this place”, he called the Parliament House culture toxic.
“People wonder why I get a little frustrated, but I’ve had to put up with so much in my time in this place,” Thorpe told ABC TV.
“That’s why I say it’s a toxic workplace… I want people to know that it’s been the most traumatic two years in this place, because of the bad behavior of politicians.”