A far-left Greens senator lashed out at “you White people” during an emotional and racially charged rant defending an aboriginal colleague for comments she made about burning down Parliament House.
Mehreen Faruqi, a Pakistan-born Muslim who wears a Palestinian scarf in the Senate and wants the Lord’s Prayer removed from parliament, made the remarks on Monday in reference to a motion to censure former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe.
Ms Thorpe sparked outrage and a police investigation by saying “if I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point … I am not there to make friends” at a rally in Melbourne on October 12, but Ms Faruqi said it was just a “metaphor”.
Far-left Pakistan-born Muslim Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi attacks “White people” during emotional rant defending aboriginal colleague’s comment about “burning down Parliament House”.
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“You would have thought that many of the Coalition MPs and senators, and Labor MPs and senators, you would have thought that they would perhaps understand the meaning of ‘burning down the house’, given that many of you White people in here claim English as your first language,” Ms Faruqi said.
“That you would actually know what this means, or maybe, maybe, some of you have heard the Talking Heads song Burning Down The House in the 80s, which is about liberation, it is about freedom, it is about breaking free. But no, but no. For Heaven’s sake, this is a metaphor.”
Ms Faruqi, who was allowed to move to Australia from Pakistan in 1992 and given citizenship just two years later, went on to accuse her Senate colleagues of starting a “pile-on” against Ms Thorpe.
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“Senator Thorpe spoke truth to power about the genocide of first nations people,” she continued, while pausing to say “this is how you treat people of colour, so I’m not surprised at all that you’re ranting back at me” when she was heckled.
“Senator Thorpe spoke truth to power when she spoke about the genocide of first nations people in this country, and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and you all, you all can’t bear to hear the truth.
“And one of the first acts of this colony’s NSI (National Security Intelligence) teams, is to target, no no, not neo-Nazis, don’t target neo-Nazis once you set up this team, but to target a black senator.”
She then accused her colleagues of supporting genocide in Gaza and shielding Israel.
The motion to censure Ms Thorpe failed with 34 votes against and 27 for.
Header image: Mehreen Faruqi during her tirade (Parliament).
