Senator Lidia Thorpe says she is disappointed that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weighed into commentary around an altercation outside a Melbourne strip club at the weekend.
The independent senator was filmed telling a number of people they had a "small penis" and were "marked" outside a Brunswick club, which later banned her from the venue.
Anthony Albanese labelled the altercation "unacceptable" for a senator, or anyone else in society, and encouraged her to seek support.
However, the senator says she was defending herself from harassers.
In a statement, Senator Thorpe said Mr Albanese and others were trying to undermine her work as a senator.
"There is a history of white men in power using the media to attack and demonise Blak people [who] stand up to racism," Senator Thorpe said.
"They did the same thing to Adam Goodes and Heritier Lumumba when they called out racism. Saying I need 'mental help' is a continuation of the old racist and misogynistic narrative used to discredit and silence outspoken and strong women, particularly Blak women."
Senator Thorpe also criticised the media for focusing on that event and not on the 32nd anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report.
The senator said the story should have been about "racists brazenly harassing a senator".
"I am disappointed by the opportunism of politicians in Canberra — including the Prime Minister — using this to drag me down but, more than that, I am heartened and inspired by the hundreds of messages of support I’ve received from every corner of the country," she said.
Greens Leader Adam Bandt — who supported the former Greens senator's elevation to federal parliament — avoided commenting on the issue on the ABC this morning.
"I know that Senator Thorpe has said publicly there is another side to the story, there is another side to the story … I'll leave the public and others to make their own judgements about that. She is no longer a member of the Greens," Mr Bandt said.
"It's not the kind of conduct I would hope my senators in the Greens would engage in, and it's something that, if senators in the Greens engaged in, I'd expect you'd see — well, I don't think you would see them engaging in that kind of conduct."
Senator Thorpe's actions in recent months were questioned by the prime minister, including her protest during Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade that ended in her being escorted away by police.
Mr Albanese warned the senator that she needed to be "conscious" of how her behaviour had been received by the public.
