<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>333376</docID> <postdate>2024-11-18 14:06:37</postdate> <headline>‘I’ll do it again’: Lidia Thorpe defies censure motion</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-333377" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241118135398770223-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>An unrepentant Lidia Thorpe told parliament she would repeat her protest to the King. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Kat Wong</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has vowed to keep telling the truth despite a Senate reprimand over her highly-publicised protest against King Charles III during the British monarch's Australian visit.</strong></p> <p>"You're not going to shut me down," the Indigenous senator told reporters on Monday after the upper house voted 46-12 to censure her over her protest during a parliamentary ceremony to honour the King in October.</p> <p>"I don't give a damn about a censure motion - in fact, I'm going to use it for kindling."</p> <p>Earlier, government Senate leader Penny Wong claimed the Victorian senator's actions sought to "incite outrage and grievance" and "create storms on social media".</p> <p>The censure signalled that Australian politicians should uphold standards of respect during visits by dignitaries, she said.</p> <p>Senator Thorpe, in a protest that generated worldwide coverage, claimed the monarch had "committed genocide against our people" and urged him to "give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people".</p> <p>"If you want to condemn me for being a truth teller, then go for it," she said after the Senate vote.</p> <p>"I'm proud that I stood up against the king coloniser; shame that he didn't take the opportunity to apologise.</p> <p>"So I'll do it again, I'll keep doing it."</p> <p>Senator Thorpe's former party, the Greens, voted against the censure motion with Senator Mehreen Faruqi calling on politicians to listen to the concerns of Indigenous Australians.</p> <p>"The bubble of white privilege that encapsulates this parliament is a systemic issue," she said.</p> <p>"That's why we are here today, debating a Black senator being censured for telling the truth of the British crown's genocide on First Nations people and telling it the way she wants to."</p> <p>The Senate also voted to censure the United Australia Party's Ralph Babet over his inflammatory use of hate speech.</p> <p>Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham said the words he had placed on the public record were "repugnant, abhorrent and have no place in proper, orderly, civil conduct".</p> <div class="wire-column__preview__text" id="preview-body"> <p>The two senators were made aware of the motions on Monday morning but were unable to vote in the chamber because their flights to Canberra were delayed.</p> <p>Nationals senator Matt Canavan said he could not in good conscience vote for the censures, arguing both politicians deserved to be in the chamber.</p> <p>"The government has brought this on in what can only be described as a kangaroo court-style, where the defendant is not even here," he said.</p> <p>Censure motions do not have any legal consequences but they are rare, and give parliamentarians the chance to formally express their disapproval of colleagues.</p> </div> </body>