Lidia Thorpe Has Apologised After Telling A Liberal Senator “At Least I Can Keep My Legs Shut”
"I just want to unreservedly take back the comments that I made earlier when interjecting...that won’t happen again."
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has been forced to apologise to Liberal senator Hollie Hughes after being accused of saying “at least I keep my legs shut” during a heated debate on Wednesday.
Thorpe’s alleged comments come after a particularly messy few days in Parliament, with senator David Van accused of growling at Jacqui Lambie, and Anthony Albanese calling Peter Dutton a “boofhead.”
According to news.com.au, assistant attorney general Amanda Stoker and Liberal senator Ben Small both heard the comment clearly on Wednesday afternoon. Small told the Senate that Thorpe allegedly “just made the most outrageous statement directed at Senator Hughes”, asserting that it “ranks at the top of disgusting statements made in this chamber.”
Thorpe immediately retracted the comment: “I’m happy to retract, Mr President. I just got a view of something over there that disturbed me. But I’m happy to retract.”
She then addresses the Senate a second time later in the evening to offer a more sincere apology. “I just want to unreservedly take back the comments that I made earlier when interjecting, and I apologise to that senator, Senator Hughes, wholeheartedly. That won’t happen again. So I apologise to the senator and also the Senate,” she said.
Senator Hughes interpreted the comment to be a sledge at her son, who has autism, given the fact the conversation prior was regarding disability. Junkee does not assert this was the intention of the comment.
“What I took from it, what a number of my colleagues from across the chamber, Liberal, Labor, crossbenchers, was had I kept my legs shut [then] I wouldn’t have a child with autism,” Hughes said on Thursday morning. “Honestly, I am dumbfounded that someone would say, would suggest that. I can take it, have a go at me all you want to, I could not care less. But when someone invokes someone’s child, I think they have crossed a line.”
While Hughes has accepted the apology, she has also called for Thorpe to lose her position in the Senate over the comment. Greens leader Adam Bandt is yet to comment on the situation.