Independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s senate outburst, AG’s Department grilled over Palestinian recognition

Outspoken crossbencher Lidia Thorpe called out “yay, free Palestine!” in an outburst at Senate Estimates, as the A-G’s office began to be grilled over Labor’s recognition of a Palestinian state. The independent senator, after a series of questions that labelled the Closing the Gap initiative as a “furphy” and suggested it was an “excuse for the ongoing genocide of my people”, yelled “Yay! Free Palestine” as she left the chamber. The outburst was in response to questions being put to the Attorney-General’s Department about the government’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine, which resulted in a fiery clash between Liberal senator Claire Chandler and the acting A-G Don Farrell. “I know it would be disappointing from the Coalition’s point of view if peace did occur in the Middle East because then you would have nothing,” Mr Farrell said. Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee chair Jana Stewart was forced to restore order after a shouting match between Mr Farrell and Greens senators disrupted proceedings. “I would say the same thing about the Greens, once peace is achieved in the Middle East of course you have nothing further to contribute to this debate … Both the Greens and the Coalition are in the same position. The Liberal senator questioned whether traditional criteria for recognising statehood, including a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and a capacity to enter into relations with other states, were fulfilled by Palestine in light of its recognition. Ms Chandler described the department’s answers as “frustrating” after representatives referred a number of questions to alternative departments, refused to provide answers which would be considered legal advice and maintained the decision was a “political” rather than legal one. Six weeks to wrangle states over child safety: A-G Department The Attorney-General’s Department has revealed it took almost two months to get state governments on board for Working with Children Check reforms following allegations of widespread sexual abuse across Victorian childcare centres. Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee deputy chair Claire Chandler has grilled the department’s secretary Katherine Jones over why it took six weeks for a meeting between state and federal representatives to take place. The meeting followed an investigation into a slew of alleged sexual assaults by childcare worker Joshua Brown across 23 childcare centres in Victoria. The Liberal senator asked why the department delayed “incredibly urgent discussions over child safety for over six weeks”. “In order to be able to get agreement between the states and territories on concrete proposals that could be implemented, obviously there was a lot of work that needed to happen ahead of that meeting,” Ms Jones said. “One thing to recognise is that every jurisdiction has in place slightly different regimes around Working with Children checks. “To be able to work through the complexities of the different regimes and the issues that needed to be addressed, to be able to get a national approach to negative checks, was incredibly challenging.” The department has also put the burden on legislating a national register, to prevent bad actors in the childcare sector from moving across state lines, onto the states and territories. “I’d go the decision from the Attorneys-General Standing Council, which was agree to urgently work towards implementation by the end of 2025, that was the decision all nine Attorneys-General took,” first assistant secretary Chris Collett said. “The key changes to implement that are not Commonwealth changes, they are specific to certain jurisdictions. “The Commonwealth’s role in this particular space is one of facilitation, leadership and co-ordination if you will.” The department said it had received assurances that state governments were “urgently” working towards implementing the register by 2025, with Ms Jones saying her department was “relatively confident” it would achieve that deadline.