How Much Lower Can Lidia Thorpe Sink?

I’ve asked it before, and I’ll ask it again: why are the Greens a magnet for the most toxic people on Earth? If politics is show biz for ugly people, then the Greens are a grubby, 8mm peepshow loop in a dive strip joint. The past few years alone have seen Greens MPs and candidates caught up in abuse, rape, anti-Semitism scandals; bragging about drug use and shoplifting, and advocating for bestiality and necrophilia.

And then there’s Lidia Thorpe.

If the Greens are a trashy peepshow, Lidia is hanging around the alley outside a strip club. Literally.

Lidia Thorpe has defended her behaviour outside a Melbourne strip club, after footage surfaced of her yelling profanities and telling men they had small genitalia.

The former Greens turned Independent senator Thorpe claimed people were trying to “drag me down,” in a brief statement.

Oh, believe you, me, Lidia, there’s nowhere left for anyone to drag you down to.

The video shows Senator Thorpe leaving a Brunswick club at about 3am while celebrating a friend’s 50th birthday, Seven News reported.

She was shown shouting at men standing outside before being dragged away by a companion,

“You know what I say to you? You know what I say to you?” she said. “Small penis, small penis.”

A man off-camera can be heard calling Senator Thorpe a “racist dog”. She then yelled at him: “Any black man that stands with the f..king white little c..t like that youse can all get f..ked too.

Charming, as always.

The manager of the strip club claims the rogue senator was going up to ‘white men’ before the incident saying: ‘You stole my land’.

David Ross, general manager of Maxine’s, told Daily Mail Australia that Senator Thorpe’s behaviour was ‘just unacceptable’ and that she has been banned for life from the establishment.

Remember, Lidia Thorpe is 50 years old and a Senator. I think most of us would reasonably expect that even a 50-year-old factory worker would be above getting into scrag fights outside a strip club at three in the morning. But, then, even a 50-year-old factory worker has a depth of maturity, wisdom and just plain class that would never fit in the Greens party room.

It should also be noted that Thorpe levelled blatant threats against a member of the public: “You are marked,” she can be heard saying loudly and clearly.

So, the question now is: what are the rest of the Senate going to do about it?

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek called Senator Thorpe’s behaviour outside a Melbourne nightclub “obviously unacceptable” […]

Senator Jacqui Lambie said Senator Thorpe should take responsibility for her own actions and says she is “part of the problem” […] The Tasmanian senator said Senator Thorpe should seek psychological help if she needs it […]

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says he is starting to “feel sorry” for Senator Thorpe.

“The first thing you have to look at is how the Greens actually preselected her. She is in parliament of course, and I have to say that Labor preferenced her,” Mr Joyce told Sunrise.

Yet, the Senate chose to pass a motion condemning Order of Australia recipient Bettina Arndt, for nothing worse than inadvisedly defending a copper who made some ill-considered statements on a murder-suicide case. That was a particularly gutless move, given that, as a private citizen, Arndt had no means whatsoever of defending herself in the Senate. It amounted to an extra-judicial conviction without a fair hearing.

But, if the Senate were gutless then, they’re even more craven, now.

[Ms Plibersek said…] “As for whether the Parliament should have the ability to intervene, I think that’s something we would have to consider very carefully” […]

Mr Joyce says it is not his view that Senator Thorpe should be kept out of parliament.

The Australian

Unlike Bettina Arndt, Thorpe can at least defend herself against a well-deserved censure motion (assuming she bothers to turn up in the Chamber for once). Ultimately, of course, voters will decide Thorpe’s fate, but that the Senate will not move against one of its members who so repeatedly drags it into such disrepute speaks volumes about the craven cowardice of the political elite.