61 Facts About Lidia Thorpe

Lidia Alma Thorpe was born on 18 August 1973 and is an Aboriginal Australian independent politician.

Lidia Thorpe has been a senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state.

Lidia Thorpe was a member of the Australian Greens until February 2023, when she quit the party over disagreements concerning the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and became a key figure in the "progressive No" campaign for the Voice referendum in October 2023.

Lidia Thorpe has previously been a member of the Victorian Parliament.

Lidia Thorpe served as the member for the division of Northcote in the Legislative Assembly from 2017 to 2018.

Lidia Thorpe has received media attention for her support of the Blak Sovereign Movement and her criticism of the legitimacy of Australian political institutions, which she views as the legacy of colonialism.

Lidia Alma Thorpe was born on 18 August 1973 in Carlton, Victoria, to Roy Illingworth and Marjorie Thorpe.

Lidia Thorpe is of English, Irish, Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent.

Lidia Thorpe grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood and went to Gold Street Primary School in Clifton Hill.

Lidia Thorpe studied Year 7 at Fitzroy High School, Year 8 at Collingwood High, returned to Fitzroy High for Year 9, but left soon afterwards, at the age of 14.

Lidia Thorpe's first job was working with her uncle Robbie Thorpe at the Koori Information Centre at 120 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, which at that time was "a hub of Black political activity".

Lidia Thorpe says that from that day onward, she has worked continuously, apart from six-month breaks after the birth of each of her children.

Lidia Thorpe won the 2021 Social Impact Award from Swinburne University of Technology, from which she graduated in 2007 with a Diploma of Community Development.

Lidia Thorpe has worked as a project manager with the East Gippsland Shire Council, Indigenous manager at Centrelink and manager at Lake Tyers Aboriginal Training Centre.

Lidia Thorpe was the co-chair of the Victorian NAIDOC Committee from 2014 to 2017.

In 2013, Lidia Thorpe was declared bankrupt with over in debts, including monies owed to Indigenous Business Australia and owed to the Australian Taxation Office.

Lidia Thorpe said that her bankruptcy resulted from domestic violence, stating "like many survivors of family violence, I ended up losing everything in a bid to protect myself and my family from an impossible situation".

Lidia Thorpe's ex-husband, who was an alcoholic, confirmed her account of the marriage breakdown.

Lidia Thorpe was sworn in as a member of parliament on 28 November 2017 and delivered her first speech to the assembly the following day.

Lidia Thorpe was the Australian Greens Victoria portfolio holder for Aboriginal Justice, Consumer Affairs, Skills and Training, Sport and Mental Health.

Lidia Thorpe supported the Victorian Government's 2018 treaty bill, but stated that she would continue to push for clan sovereignty to be recognised as the treaty process advances.

Lidia Thorpe lost her seat to Labor candidate Kat Theophanous at the 2018 Victorian state election, with her term finishing on 19 December 2018.

In June 2020, Lidia Thorpe was preselected by Victorian Greens members to fill the federal Senate vacancy created by former leader Richard Di Natale's resignation.

Lidia Thorpe was appointed to the vacancy at a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament on 4 September and sworn in on 6 October 2020.

Lidia Thorpe is the first Aboriginal woman to represent Victoria in the Senate and the first Aboriginal federal parliamentarian from the Greens.

The Attorney-General, Selena Uibo, an Aboriginal woman, commented that Lidia Thorpe is not qualified to speak on Northern Territory issues.

In December 2021, Lidia Thorpe interjected to speaking Liberal senator Hollie Hughes the remark, "at least, I keep my legs shut", during a Senate discussion about people living with disabilities.

Later in the evening, Lidia Thorpe admitted to "inappropriate remarks" and "unreservedly" apologised, but denied any direct reference to Hughes's family.

Lidia Thorpe was filmed telling a number of people they had a "small penis" and were "marked".

Lidia Thorpe claimed the men provoked the altercation by harassing her.

Lidia Thorpe had not disclosed the relationship, which was only revealed when her staff, who became aware of the relationship in mid-2021, notified party leader Adam Bandt's office and an independent parliamentary authority.

Lidia Thorpe told the staffer that "she was being really careful", in that she used encrypted social media to communicate with Martin, and that she was deleting conversations between them weekly, while, ostensibly, they would never meet at either one's home.

On 24 October 2022, Lidia Thorpe referred herself to the Senate privileges committee about her relationship with Martin.

On 20 October 2022, ABC News revealed that Lidia Thorpe had been dating Martin in 2021.

Lidia Thorpe resigned from her position as Greens' deputy leader in the Senate, shortly after.

ALP senator Helen Polley, the head of the joint parliamentary law enforcement committee, of which Lidia Thorpe had been a member, said, with regard to Lidia Thorpe's position as a senator: "She should consider if it's the right place for her".

The committee found that Lidia Thorpe did not disclose any sensitive information to Martin, but stated she should have declared their relationship to avoid the perception of a conflict of interest.

On 6 February 2023, Lidia Thorpe announced that she would resign from the Greens to become an independent senator, sitting on the cross-bench, over disagreements concerning the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Lidia Thorpe's questioning during the hearing falls under parliamentary privilege, but since the senator repeated the accusation on social media, Scrymgour stated that a concerns notice would be issued to Senator Lidia Thorpe since she intends to pursue legal action against the Victorian senator for defamation.

The heckle was condemned by Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia who commented that the heckling was not of the standard Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians, as well as Peter Dutton, Leader of the Opposition, who called on Lidia Thorpe to resign from the Senate.

Lidia Thorpe, subsequently, revised her claim, stating that, when she was being sworn in as a senator, she "mispronounced" heirs as hairs, "without meaning to do so", and did not do it deliberately.

On 18 November 2024, Lidia Thorpe was censured by the Australian Senate.

On 27 November 2024, Lidia Thorpe was suspended from the Senate for the remainder of that sitting year for "disorderly conduct" following a confrontation with One Nation's Pauline Hanson after Hanson questioned the eligibility of Fatima Payman to sit in parliament under foreign citizenship requirements.

Lidia Thorpe is said to have shouted that Hanson was "a convicted racist" and thrown torn-up paper in Hanson's direction before walking out with her middle finger raised.

The morning after her suspension, Lidia Thorpe entered the Senate through the press gallery and yelled "Free Palestine" with her fist raised before departing of her own accord.

Lidia Thorpe stated that she had "sustained serious nerve and spinal injuries in [her] neck, which required spinal surgery and a plate to be inserted".

Lidia Thorpe is or has been the delegate for the Lakes Entrance Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, the Victorian representative to the National Advisory Committee for The Smith Family, and co-chair of the Victorian NAIDOC Committee.

Lidia Thorpe has supported the Pay the Rent campaign, which calls on non-Aboriginal Australians to voluntarily pay reparations through an organisation of the same name.

Lidia Thorpe has been critical of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, believing there should be a treaty before an Indigenous voice to government.

Lidia Thorpe led a walk-out of the Uluru convention, believing that it was "hijacked by Aboriginal corporations and establishment appointments and did not reflect the aspirations of ordinary Indigenous people".

On 25 February 2023, Lidia Thorpe, after walking behind the police float that was taking part in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade and shouting slogans against police violence, laid down in front of the float in protest against the participation of the police in the parade.

The parade was temporarily halted and eventually Lidia Thorpe walked away without being arrested.

In March 2023, footage emerged of Lidia Thorpe being tackled to the ground by a police officer while attending a demonstration outside of Parliament House.

Lidia Thorpe was part of a group countering an anti-transgender rights rally at Parliament House, in which Party of Women leader and anti-transgender rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull was taking part.

Lidia Thorpe was awarded the Fellowship for Indigenous Leadership in 2008.

Lidia Thorpe's mother, Marjorie Thorpe, was a co-commissioner for the Stolen Generations inquiry that produced the Bringing Them Home report in the 1990s and later a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and a preselected Greens federal candidate for Gippsland.

Lidia Thorpe's sister is Meriki Onus, who co-founded the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance collective that was a driving force behind the Australian Aboriginal Sovereignty movement.

Lidia Thorpe's uncle is activist Robbie Thorpe, who is linked to some of the earliest struggles for Aboriginal Australian self-determination, and involved with the Pay The Rent campaign.

Lidia Thorpe became a single mother at the age of 17.

Lidia Thorpe has three children, from "relationships that never lasted," and as of April 2022 four grandchildren.

Lidia Thorpe was reportedly in a relationship with Gavan McFadzean, manager of the Climate Change and Clean Energy Program at the Australian Conservation Foundation, from 2019 to 2022.