Firebrand senator Lidia Thorpe is set to be suspended from Parliament for the rest of the sitting week after she ripped up a motion by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson on the chamber floor.
Sources from both Coalition and Labor say her antics are considered serious enough to take action against, the ABC reported.
The matter is scheduled to be raised in the Senate on Wednesday night.
It comes after a chaotic day in the Senate where Senator Hanson tabled a document which claimed Labor defector Fatima Payman’s Afghan citizenship disqualified her from serving in parliament.
It sparked a vicious spray from Senator Payman, who accused the One Nation leader of racism and claiming she brings ‘disgrace to the human race’.
‘Senator Hanson has worn the burqa in this place. Maybe it’s time she pack her burqa and go to Afghanistan and talk to the Taliban about this,’ Senator Payman seethed.
‘All that Senator Hanson has done in this place is spread hatred, spread division.’
She also listed multiple previous comments made by Senator Hanson, including her first speech in which she said Australia was ‘in danger of being swamped by Asians’ and that ‘Aboriginality would no longer exist’ if her party were in power.
‘If that is not racist, what is it?’ Senator Payman yelled as she slammed her fist down on the table.
Senator Thorpe could be heard repeatedly shouting ‘You are a convicted racist!’
More to come.
Pauline HansonLidia Thorpe
