MOTIONS

Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (15:00): by leave—I move: That the Senate— (a) censures Senator Thorpe for her use of inflammatory language in which she said at a public rally in Melbourne on Sunday, 12 October 2025, 'if I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point…I am not there to make friends'; (b) further notes the Australian Federal Police has commenced inquiries into whether these comments may have breached Commonwealth law; (c) notes that all Australians have the right to a safe and supportive workplace, including those who work in Parliament; (d) affirms that, if Parliament is to be a safe place for all who work and visit here, there can be no tolerance for violence, inciting of violence, racism or discrimination in the course of parliamentarians' public debate; (e) reaffirms that all parliamentarians have a role to play in upholding appropriate standards of behaviour in the Parliament; and (f) calls on senators to engage in debates and commentary respectfully, and to refrain from inflammatory and divisive comments, both inside and outside the chamber at all times.

We're not moving this motion in the Senate, in any way, to suggest that senators should not be able to express their views but because of the inflammatory nature of the words that were used in the public comments made by Senator Thorpe. They detract from our requirement as politicians—as those people who Australia looks to to set an example for how to behave and how we expect them to behave.

There is no place for the kinds of comments that Senator Thorpe has made. We thank the government for allowing us to move this motion, and we hope that the government will be in a position to support this censure. If the government does not support this censure, they are ignoring the seriousness of these comments.

Previously, those opposite have been quick to come into this place and move censure motions. An example of that was last year when they moved a censure motion on Senator Babet for his very insulting and derogatory terms and public statements. We supported the government at that time, when it came to moving that censure motion, because we believe that those sorts of comments have no place at all in proper, orderly civil conduct and debate.

We have a job in this place to uphold the highest standards. Quite frankly, the comments that were made by Senator Thorpe are not upholding those standards. They are unacceptable.

We call on the government and everybody in this chamber to support us in saying to Senator Thorpe that it is not a reasonable thing for her to make these comments in public. We'd advise the government to be consistent in their approach to comments that are made outside this chamber that are inflammatory, in the way that the comments of Senator Thorpe were. I would point to comments that Senator Wong herself made on 18 November last year when she said: First, censure is about the protection of the institution … It's about us as a collective protecting the institution.

I would say that the comments made by Senator Thorpe are actually in direct contrast to the protection of this institution. I think that, if they are serious enough to warrant an investigation by the AFP, they're serious enough for us to draw the attention of this chamber to what we believe are unacceptable comments made by Senator Thorpe. Quite frankly, Senator Thorpe just went too far.

It's already quite simple: senators should not, in any forum, be threatening to burn down Parliament House. They should not be threatening to burn down anybody's workplace. Australians rightly expect that their representatives are careful with their public commentary.

Nothing could be less careful than the comments that came out of the mouth of Senator Thorpe. This kind of language, which calls on violence and puts the safety of all those who work in this place at risk, is completely unacceptable and, quite frankly, un-Australian. So it is our duty as the leaders in this place, with almost 4,000 staff who work in this building every single day—and the staff in Parliament House do such a fantastic job: the clerks, the researchers, the IT professionals, the people who clean our building, the people who tend our gardens, the caterers and all the staff who support us in everything we do.

They have a right to feel safe in their workplace. They have a right for one of us not to be threatening to take violent action in this place. We know this workplace has been under threat before.

We've had serious upgrades to our security in this place because we have had threats of violence. The fact that the AFP thought the threat that was made by Senator Thorpe was significant enough to warrant an investigation is one very good reason why we in this place should be taking it as seriously as we do. I say to everybody in this place that we must be consistent with our standards.

We must be consistent in how we approach these things. We have censured people before because of the kinds of inflammatory remarks that they have made. These are inflammatory remarks by Senator Thorpe.

They, quite frankly, are completely unacceptable. To threaten the workplace of any Australian is unacceptable, and it's equally unacceptable to be threatening a workplace in Parliament House. Senator Thorpe herself has brought shame upon herself.

She must be held to account, and I hope this chamber will do that.