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First Aboriginal woman in parliament ‘deeply disappointed’ by Lidia Thorpe’s ‘outburst’
Nova Peris, a former senator and the first Aboriginal woman in the parliament, says she is “deeply disappointed” by Lidia Thorpe’s actions during King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.
In a post to X, Peris said that the “outburst” was “both embarrassing and disrespectful to our nation and the Royal Family”, and “disrupted what should have been a respectful event”.
In 2022, Senator Thorpe herself affirmed allegiance to the Crown during her swearing-in ceremony … If Senator Thorpe was not on board with this, she should not have accepted her position and made her affirmation in the first place.
(When Thorpe was sworn in, she was told to repeat the oath of allegiance after she initially described the Queen as a coloniser.)
Peris said she has supported the principle Australia should become a republic for two decades, but argued “such decisions are for the Australian people to make through democratic means—not through rude interruptions or public outbursts”.
Australia is moving forward in its journey of reconciliation. As a nation, we are continually recognising the deep injustices faced by Aboriginal people. However, as hard as that journey is, it requires respectful dialogue, mutual understanding, and a shared commitment to healing—not divisive actions that draw attention away from the progress we are making as a country.
Key events
Dutton says Thorpe should ‘resign in principle’
Josh Butler
Opposition leader Peter Dutton claims Lidia Thorpe should “resign in principle”, calling her interjection at the parliamentary reception for King Charles and Queen Camilla “predictable”.
Dutton said on Sunrise this morning:
I think there’s a very strong argument for somebody who doesn’t believe in the system, but is willing to take a quarter of a million dollars a year from the system, to resign in principle.
If you were really truly about your cause and not just about yourself, then I think that’s a decision that you would make.
The Nine newspapers reported this morning some Liberal politicians are considering whether to seek a censure of Thorpe in parliament.
On Radio National, as we brought you earlier, Thorpe claimed “every time I see him [Dutton] in Parliament he walks in the opposite direction, so he never wants to sit down and have a conversation.”
The opposition leader went on to criticise Thorpe’s interruption in his Sunrise spot:
My reaction was that, ‘here we go again’. It was entirely predictable, all about herself. It doesn’t advance any cause that she’s interested in. It’s really just a self-promotion thing, which is why I don’t think we should give it any attention. Unfortunately, it overshadowed what I think’s been a very successful visit so far. I think it was disrespectful, and most Australians dismiss it on that basis.
Watch: the moment Lidia Thorpe was sworn in as senator
As we reported earlier, Nova Peris, the first Aboriginal woman in the Australian parliament, has criticised Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.
Novis pointed to Thorpe affirming allegiance to the Crown and said if she “was not on board with this, she should not have accepted her position and made her affirmation in the first place”.
When Thorpe was sworn in, in August 2022, she was told to repeat the oath of allegiance after she initially described the Queen as a coloniser.
Speaking to ABC RN this morning (see earlier post), Thorpe said she had sworn allegiance “under duress” and it was “a very, very difficult thing to do as a Blak, sovereign woman.”
However, I was told that if I didn’t do it, I couldn’t be a senator to bring Blak issues into this space and around the world…
You can watch the moment Thorpe was first sworn in as a senator below:
Great Western Highway closed at St Marys after fatal Sydney crash
NSW police have declared a critical incident after a fatal car crash in western Sydney early this morning.
About 4am, two officers in marked vehicles saw a dark-grey Holden Insignia sedan stopped. Police stopped near the sedan when the driver allegedly accelerated towards the Great Western Highway and police lost sight of it.
Police followed and found the sedan had hit a silver Toyota Corolla hatchback. Police allege the driver of the sedan fled the scene on foot.
The driver of the hatchback – who is yet to be formally identified, but is believed to be in his 40s – died at the scene.
A 43-year-old man, alleged to be the driver of the sedan, was arrested a short time later and taken to Nepean hospital under police guard for mandatory testing.
A crime scene has been established and a critical incident team is investigating. The investigation is also subject to an independent review. Anyone with dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
The Great Western Highway is closed in both directions at St Marys, between Glossop Street and Sydney Street.
Government announces $7bn missile acquisition deal with the US
The Albanese government has announced a $7bn agreement with the United States to acquire long-range missiles, aimed at bolstering Australia’s air and missile defence.
The acquisition of the Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC (SM-2 IIIC) and Standard Missile‑6 (SM-6) is a “significant milestone” in the government’s progress in boosting long-range capability, a media release from the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, said.
The missiles will be progressively deployed across the Navy’s Hobart-class destroyers and in the future, the Hunter-class frigates, the statement said.
Conroy said Australia is facing “the most complex geostrategic environment since the second world war” and the acquisition was about “moving fast to keep Australians safe, deter any adversary, and defend Australia’s national interests in the missile age”:
Australia was the first country, other than the United States, to fire the SM-6 missile, underscoring the strength of our alliance.
‘Delay-mongers have latched onto nuclear power,’ climate authority head Kean says
Peter Hannam
Matt Kean, the new chair of the Climate Change Authority, has told the AFR’s energy conference in Sydney that “we simply can’t afford to wait” for energy breakthroughs over the horizon as coal is phased out of the grid.
Kean, a former NSW energy minister, took particular aim at nuclear energy, a policy being advocated by his erstwhile federal Coalition counterparts, dubbing it an “illiberal drive in a market-led energy transition [that] has been elevated from internet chatrooms and lobby groups to the national stage”.
“The delay-mongers have latched on to nuclear power, despite the overwhelming evidence that [it] could drive up energy bills and can only be more expensive” with no aid for the present cost-of-living crisis, he said.
I suspect that even those arguing for nuclear don’t believe that we’ll ever build one of these reactors in Australia, and certainly not in time to help manage the exit of coal from the system.
Perhaps the biggest cost of nuclear is time. It is precious time that neither our economy or our environment can afford.
Those pushing the technology were really trying to “squeeze out profits” from their existing energy assets, he said, referring particularly to coal, it would seem.
Ted O’Brien, the federal opposition’s energy minister, will speak at the conference in about an hour, and presumably won’t welcome Kean’s warmup speech.
On the issue of when the authority will deliver its advice to the government on what Australia’s 2035 targets should be, Kean would not be drawn on whether they are likely to be this side of the federal elections. (It’s likely they will be after the polls, if this correspondent were to put down a wager.)
Thorpe apologises for now-deleted social media post from staffer
Late last night, independent senator Lidia Thorpe apologised for a now-deleted social media post, depicting a carton King Charles being beheaded.
It was posted without her knowledge to her Instagram story by a staff member, and promptly deleted as soon as she saw it, Thorpe said.
An apology on her Instagram story reads:
Earlier tonight, without my knowledge, one of my staff shared an image to my Instagram stories created by another account. I deleted it as soon as I saw. I would not intentionally share anything that could be seen to encourage violence against anyone. That’s not what I’m about.
Communities in far west NSW facing prolonged power outage
Communities in far west NSW are being urged to prepare for a prolonged power outage, after a backup generator tripped yesterday afternoon.
A severe storm rolled through the area last week, flattening transmission towers and leaving thousands without power or running on diesel generators.
The NSW DCCEEW (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) said crews worked through the night to investigate a fault with the generator, with repairs expected to continue today:
Additional generators will arrive in Broken Hill today, and teams from Transgrid and Essential Energy will work to safely connect them to the network. More generators are also on their way to provide additional back-up supply, while emergency work continues to rebuild the transmission network damaged in severe storms.
Six public schools are closed amid the power outages, including:
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Alma public school
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Broken Hill public school
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Burke Ward public school
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Morgan Street public school
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Railway Town public school
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School of the Air
Drone footage of the area where a short burst of high-speed winds and heavy hail battered an area south of Broken Hill. Transgrid says it could take weeks for repairs to be completed, and the region will run on generators in the meantime. 📹@billormonde_2 pic.twitter.com/A4hUjr5Mty
— Sarah McConnell (@SarahJMcConnell) October 17, 2024
Lidia Thorpe says King Charles should apologise on behalf of his ancestors
Lidia Thorpe was also asked how King Charles specifically is complicit in crimes committed against First Nations people.
His family and his kingdom are absolutely responsible for what happened to my people in this country. They came to the shores with guns … Has he done anything about it? If you stay silent, then you are complicit.
Thorpe continued, said the king should have “take[n] leadership”:
Why doesn’t he take his crown and use the leadership … that he supposedly has to end the conflict in this country? Why won’t he treaty? Why didn’t his ancestors treaty with us when they [made a treaty] with New Zealand? …
Why doesn’t he apologise then for his ancestors? Why doesn’t he say, I am sorry for the many, many thousands of massacres that happened in this country, and that my ancestors and my kingdom are responsible for that? And by the way, we’ll start handing back your bones, your skulls and everything else we stole from you as a as a gesture of good faith and treaty making.
‘I’m not looking to get re-elected, I’m looking to get justice’: Thorpe
Lidia Thorpe was asked about comments from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, that she should resign on principle if she doesn’t believe in the system.
Thorpe said that Dutton should say it “to [her] face”:
Because every time I see him in Parliament he walks in the opposite direction, so he’s he never wants to sit down and have a conversation…
I really don’t care what [he] says, I’m in this job for another three and a half years, and I’m not looking to be re-elected – I’m looking to get justice for my people.
Thorpe says she swore allegiance to crown ‘under duress’ in order to ‘bring Blak issues into this space’
Lidia Thorpe was asked about criticism about her actions at parliament house yesterday, and responded that she doesn’t “subscribe to assimilating myself into the colonial structure.”
However, I will be there for another three years, everybody. So, you know, get used to truth telling.
My approach, unfortunately, might upset a few people, but how else do you get your message across when we [are] continually shut down as Blak women. The only people they want to hear from are ones that conform and speak nicely, but do nothing about getting justice for our people.
Asked if she has “assimilated” by affirming allegiance to the crown, Thorpe said she “had to do that to fulfil my my duties, and I can guarantee you, I did that under duress”.
When Thorpe was sworn in, she was told to repeat the oath of allegiance after she initially described the Queen as a coloniser.
Thorpe continued, and said:
I sought permission from my family. It was a very, very difficult thing to do as a Blak, sovereign woman. However, I was told that if I didn’t do it, I couldn’t be a senator to bring Blak issues into this space and around the world…
Lidia Thorpe says she wanted ‘world to know plight’ of First Nations people
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is speaking with ABC RN about her decision to shout at the king during yesterday’s parliamentary reception.
She has since made international headlines for the move, and said her aim was to let the “world to know the plight of our people in this country”:
We have 24,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in [and] out of home care in 2024, it’s worse than the stolen generation. We have over 600 deaths in custody that we know about that does not include babies who’ve died in the system. So without justice, what do we have? We have no peace.
And so I’ve written to the king a number of times. He’s ignored me every time I wanted to have a respectful conversation and meeting about the plight of our people and what we want, what my old people have told me all of my life, and that wasn’t afforded to me.
So I did that for my people, I did that for my grandmother, and I wanted the world to know that we need a treaty here, and we want an end to this ongoing war against first people in this country.
Dutton says he would ‘explain the rationale’ behind nuclear to premiers who oppose plan
Peter Dutton was asked about the Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli, who has said he isn’t a fan of the federal opposition’s energy plan.
How would he persuade Crisafulli to change his mind, Dutton was asked? He said he would “explain the rationale” and pitch nuclear to the premiers:
That’s the pitch that I would make to Premier [Peter] Malinauskas, or Premier [Chris] Minns, or hopefully Premier Crasuffli.
Interestingly … Premier [Steven] Miles, if he’s re-elect[ed] on the weekend, has said that he will hold some sort of referendum or some sort of vote in Queensland. Presumably he would be bound by that vote so it seems to me, at the moment, that Steven Miles is promising that if there is a vote for the technology for nuclear that he would implement it.
[But] there are many other issues that are racing around that have gotten away from the Miles government that people will be voting on and they can vote for a change of government.
Asked about the push from Robbie Katter to recriminalise abortion in Queensland, Dutton said he doesn’t think this is a debate that is “shifting votes one way or the other” – and that people are voting on crime and law and order.
O’Neil asked about reports suggesting Liberals seeking to censure Thorpe
Clare O’Neil was also asked about reports that senior Liberal MPs are weighing up a move to censure Lidia Thorpe after her actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.
Would the government support such a motion? O’Neil said the government would need to “see what the Liberals come forward with specifically”.
I would just say one of the things that’s a bit sad about yesterday is that an amazing Ngunnawal elder was there who gave the most generous and beautiful welcome to country at the beginning of the ceremony, and … as senators and members of parliament, we’ve got lots of ways that we can express and advocate our views and I don’t think what happened yesterday was appropriate.
It did take away from the importance of that ceremony, not just for the people in the room but for millions of people around our country who have a great deal of respect for the king and the queen.
States need to ‘come to the party with planning reform’ to achieve housing targets
Q: Labor has promised 1.2m homes by the end of the decade – is that target already out of reach? O’Neil said it was “absolutely not already out of reach” but “boldness and ambition” is needed.
For a long time, the commonwealth government has effectively stepped right out of the role of providing leadership and funding to assist the housing market to function properly in our country, and that is changing under our government … What we need to see is a galvanising target which gets everyone moving in the right direction.
We need the states to come to the party with that planning reform, which is an integral part of the answer to this problem. And you’re starting to see big moves happen around the country here, and not a moment too soon, because we’ve got millions of people whose lives are being affected by this problem.
O’Neil welcomes Victorian stamp duty concessions for off-the-plan homes
Clare O’Neil was asked about a report from the Business Council that has suggested states and territories replace stamp duty with a land tax, which they say would add to economic growth and preventing stamp duty from disincentivising people from selling their homes.
She said this was a “really good idea” because “stamp duty is a bad tax”, preventing people from “moving around the housing market in the way that suits them best”.
We saw an announcement from the Victorian government this week about some changes that they’re making on that. I think it’s great … One of the reasons that housing is a difficult issue for our country is because … the three different levels of government all share some responsibility.
I’m a commonwealth minister – I can’t come in and take over the state’s role in this. What we need is good, strong partnerships state, local and commonwealth government working together, and that’s exactly what they’re getting under the Albanese government.
O’Neil speaks to opposition’s focus on greenfield housing sites
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, is now speaking with ABC RN about the opposition’s housing policy. Asked if there was a divide between the government and opposition over the focus on greenfield sites, O’Neil said “we need to do both”.
Because what we want is, No 1, more housing, because more housing means more affordable housing for all Australians. But No 2, more housing choices – and we’re going to have different people that want to do and live in different parts of our country.
We need to assist with greenfield development, as our government is doing. We also need state governments to step up a bit on planning reform that will enable us to do infill in existing suburbs …
[Young people] would be very happy to live in apartments where they’ve got access to great resources, great transport networks and the life that comes from living in the inner city. And we need to give people options, that’s that’s the answer here.
Dutton says ‘other elements’ of housing policy to be unveiled before election
On Saturday, the Coalition unveiled a new housing policy aimed at alleviating the housing crisis – committing $5bn to develop greenfield sites across the country.
The plan promises half a million extra homes over four years. Currently, Australia builds about 160,000 a year, so this means a 74% boost on current numbers. But how realistic is the plan?
Dutton told ABC RN it was “very realistic” and said a number of housing bodies had endorsed the policy.
Every economist will tell us that we need to get more supply into the housing market, given the demands that are there, given the population growth, and I believe it’s entirely possible … There are other elements of the policy that we intend to announce between now and election day.
He was asked about how this policy aligns with the Coalition’s plan to cut migration – Dutton said “we need to prioritise the people who are coming in to go into the trade” and added:
We’ve also been clear about making sure that we can access the workforce that’s readily available here in Australia now, and that is people who have retired early who want to come back into the workforce, but are prevented from doing so because of the run between the welfare system and the tax system.