Labor MP Marion Scrymgour has contacted lawyers in relation to a series of comments made by firebrand Senator Lidia Thorpe.
Thorpe questioned federal member for Lingiari during a Senate estimates hearing in early June about funding the Northern Land Council received during the Covid pandemic when she was chief executive.
The independent senator accused Ms. Scrymgour of trying to use stimulus money issued during the pandemic for political campaigns and questioned current executives about whether a grant worth $400,000 was used “to build a vacation home for the family of the Mrs. Scrymgour at Twin Hill Station.”
Scrymgour strongly denied the allegations at the time and maintains he has nothing to hide.
Senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) questioned the federal member for Lingiari in the Northern Territory during a Senate estimates hearing in early June into funding received during the Covid pandemic during her tenure as chief executive of the Land Council from North.
Those comments made by Ms Thorpe were made under parliamentary privilege, which protects politicians from such legal action.
But Scrymgour maintains that social media posts Thorpe later made about the allegations meant she would “waive parliamentary privilege”.
“Senator Thorpe has no respect for the institution of parliament or what it represents,” he said.
‘But she is happy to use it to attack people she considers her political opponents, especially when they are other First Nations women.
‘That an aspect of the system is deliberately weaponized through social media in relation to something that has nothing to do with my performance as an elected member and by someone seeking to increase their First Nations identity and credentials by asserting partnership and relationship with aboriginal territories. .
‘She has nothing to do with us. “I have retained attorneys in connection with the social media posts.”
Labor MP Marion Scrymgour (pictured) has contacted lawyers over a series of comments made by firebrand Senator Lidia Thorpe.
Scrymgour said Thorpe’s decision to discuss these allegations outside standard parliamentary processes “expanded and aggravated his allegations, leaving no doubt about his malicious, personal and political motivation.”
‘I take these allegations very seriously: they are offensive and need to be addressed. “They are defamations of my character.”
Northern Land Council executives told the Senate hearing that investigations would be carried out into allegations of misuse of the Covid stimulus, but there was no indication Ms Scrymgour was involved.