Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe has been told she “cannot keep doing this” after a foul-mouthed stoush with a group of men outside a Melbourne strip club, where she taunted one for having a “small penis”.
The independent senator’s clash was filmed early on Sunday outside Maxine’s Gentleman’s Club in the inner-northern suburb Brunswick.
“All I want to say to the black brothers there and anyone that we’re fighting,” she said, “any black man that stands with the f—ing white little c— like that, youse can all get f—ed too.”
In response to one man calling her a “racist dog” she said: “You know what I say to you? Small penis, small penis.”
Maxine’s general manager David Ross said Senator Thorpe’s behaviour was “just unacceptable” and she had been banned from the club for life.
“One of our security guards said they thought she (Senator Thorpe) was going to be trouble because she was going up to white men in the crowd and telling them that they’d stolen her land,” he told the Daily Mail on Monday.
He said Senator Thorpe did not appear to be intoxicated, and had not been asked to leave the club.
Also on Monday, independent senator Jacqui Lambie addressed her Senate colleague directly, saying “you cannot keep doing this”.
“A good start would be … take the responsibility for your own actions and take them into your own hands,” she told Sky News of Senator Thorpe.
“There is no getting out of this, you are a politician. Sometimes we do muck up but not taking any responsibility for yourself is not very helpful.”
Senator Lambie said the Victorian senator should seek counselling if she wasn’t in a good way, as “something needs to be done”.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said he was starting to “feel sorry” for Senator Thorpe.
“I think that she has to have some serious conversations with a few people about how she is conducting herself and whether it is appropriate and how she gets into that position to act like that,” he told the Seven Network.
But he said Senator Thorpe should not be booted from parliament.
“I think once you are elected, you are elected. It can come with a whole range of other issues you can do within the parliament, but the Australian people will kick [you] out at the next election,” he said.
Senator Thorpe’s term runs until 2028.
Also on Seven, Environment Minister Tanya Plibserk condemned Senator Thorpe’s behaviour.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a member of parliament or your average person, I think that sort of behaviour in public is just not acceptable,” she said.
“As for whether the Parliament should have the ability to intervene, I think that‘s something we would have to consider very carefully.”
In a statement to Seven News, which revealed the video, Senator Thorpe said she did not start the fight but was provoked over her views on Indigenous affairs.
“It’s sad people are utilising whatever they can to drag me down when we’re trying to discuss important issues in this country,” she said.
One of the men asked “how the f— does someone get in parliament like you?”
Senator Thorpe angrily responded: “We’ve been repressed all our f—ing life in this country and you let this little dog speak.”
Senator Thorpe was leaving the club about 3am after celebrating a friend’s 50th birthday, Seven News reported.
She was shown shouting at the men before being dragged away by a friend.
Senator Thorpe quit the Greens earlier this year over a dispute about the Indigenous voice to parliament.
It’s the latest controversy involving her. She was last month pulled to the ground by police after intervening in an anti-trans protest outside parliament house in Canberra.
– with AAP
