ADJOURNMENT
Senator THORPE (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (20:09): Fire has deep spiritual significance for First Peoples. It clears. It renews.
It makes way for something new. That is what I was speaking about—not arson but challenging colonial systems that continue to harm people. For 250 years, First Peoples have been told to be quiet and to respect institutions that were never built for us.
I will not be quiet. I will tell the truth, and the truth is that this parliament is in desperate need of renewal. Parliamentarians sit idly by while our people are dying, passing laws that harm us.
They sit idly by while people in Palestine face genocide. This parliament has the power to change, but those in this place choose not to. They maintain a harmful institution.
It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up if anything is ever going to change. That's what my words were about. And yet here we are treating a metaphor like a national emergency.
What a joke. The problem isn't my words; it's the colonial systems that still refuse to change. And all these politicians with their hot takes—their fake outrage is never really about me.
It's about the major parties playing the game of who can be tougher on the naughty little black girl. The Liberals jump in, trying to wedge Labor. It's all a competition to look tough in the eyes of the racists out there who want to see black women dragged down and humiliated.
It's childish. It's dishonest. It's about counting racist votes.
I won't participate. I will always stand strong against these useless major parties who continually fail on the real issues. I won't apologise and I won't be dragged down.
Then there's the right-wing media. They love to lecture me about seeking headlines, but they're the ones writing the headlines. They peddle slop to drive outrage, drive clicks and sell papers.
These hollowed-out, irrelevant news outlets are bleeding audiences, profits and influence by the day. They'll do anything to grab attention, and what better way than another Lidia Thorpe scandal? They twist my words and make money from it.
They're the ones creating the circus. And the AFP investigating a metaphor? What a waste of public money and everyone's time.
Meanwhile, violent neo-Nazis launch a brazen, racially motivated attack on First Peoples at Camp Sovereignty, and the AFP do nothing. That's a racist double standard. The AFP need to stop policing my words and focus on investigating violent hate crimes.
I will not apologise for speaking. I will not apologise for using a metaphor that makes the pearl clutchers jump. I will not apologise for naming injustice.
My words are grounded in the pain and suffering of my people—the frustration we feel with a system that continues to fail and violate First Peoples. I will keep speaking. I will keep challenging.
I will keep pointing out hypocrisy. I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated.
To speak of fire is to speak of renewal. This parliament and this country desperately need renewal. I will always respect fire, and I hope you will too.