Liz Truss resigns as UK PM; Lidia Thorpe resigns; Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrmann trial continues; Medibank Personal hack ransom revealed; unemployment price stays at 3.5 per cent; Victoria floods, NSW floods sparks ADF deployment;
Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders have questioned Lidia Thorpe’s fitness to continue holding the First Nations portfolio within the Greens.
Prominent academic Marcia Langton told The Australian newspaper that Thorpe “lacks in good judgment and common sense, she is not fit for the task of representing properly and adequately our very complex issues”.
Greens leader Adam Bandt, left, and Lidia Thorpe.Credit:Jason South, Paul Jeffers, Jesse Marlow
Marcus Stewart, co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, said Thorpe’s conduct was clouding her ability to advocate for Indigenous Australians. Stewart is the partner of Labor Senator Jana Stewart.
“I think maybe it’s time for a bit of time out for the senator,” he told ABC radio.
“I think it poses a question on the legitimacy of your message when you’re advocating for First Nations affairs, but these issues keep popping up. I think it raises questions. Are the Australian public – or other politicians – going to listen to what we need, what we’re going to fight for when these things just continually pop up?”
The comments expose the already-strained relationship between Thorpe and some high-profile members of the Aboriginal community over the best way forward for the Indigenous rights movement. A central flashpoint has been the issue of the referendum to enshrine a voice to parliament in the constitution.
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Both Langton and Stewart are members of the Albanian government’s Indigenous working group advising on the Voice to parliament.
Thorpe walked out of the Uluru dialogues in 2017 where the vast majority of Indigenous delegates ultimately endorsed the Voice as the first plank of the Uluru Statement, followed by treaty and truth.
Earlier this year, Thorpe called the referendum a “waste of money”, but has since walked back her remarks to say she will not campaign for a “no” vote in the upcoming referendum.
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