Senator Lidia Thorpe suspended from Parliament
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The news: Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has been suspended from the Senate until the end of the sitting week over her outburst towards One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
The context: Senate President Sue Lines formally suspended the former Greens senator on Wednesday night, after it was moved by Labor's Senate Leader Penny Wong.
Lines said she wrote to Thorpe at 4.30pm AEDT today, offering her a chance attend the Senate to explain herself or apologise — but Thorpe indicated she wouldn’t attend.
The Greens did not support the motion to suspend Thorpe.
Thorpe was sanctioned on Wednesday evening for disorderly conduct, a move that led Foreign Minister Penny Wong to move that Thorpe be suspended from the upper house on Thursday — the final sitting day of the year.
Earlier in the day, Thorpe threw papers at Hanson after a confrontation between the One Nation leader and Independent Senator Fatima Payman.
What they said: "All Australians have a right to be safe at work — whether it's working in retail, hospitality, hospitals, our parliamentary staff, our chamber staff or us, senators in this place," Wong said.
"We as a government and as a parliament have sought to make this workplace safer.
"Too frequently ... debate in this place has turned into aggression, to hateful personal attacks.
"And there have been dozens instances, including multiple instances of Senator Thorpe making inappropriate, sometimes abusive comments, towards other senators."
The source: Parliament
