“She was visibly rocked,” said one MP who spoke to her in the aftermath. Another,Jill Gallagher,who leads the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation,said Aunty Geraldine was so distressed she could not speak. A third,Thorpe’s own chief of staff,David Mejia-Canales,said she had been subjected to some of the most unprofessional behaviour he had ever seen.
This is how Aunty Geraldinedescribed the encounter:“When I tried to intervene to respond,Senator Thorpe spoke over the top of me in a highly aggressive tone,repeatedly stating,‘I am an Australian senator. You are in my meeting.’ I interpreted this as her using her position to try to intimidate me.”
This is a serious allegation. Robust discussion is standard in Parliament House,but the meeting was in June 2021 when everyone in the building was on notice to lift their game. The government had just launched a review by Kate Jenkins,the Sex Discrimination Commissioner,to try to stop bullying as well as sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Greens leader Adam Bandt and Thorpe have maintained this week that the meeting simply involved a “robust discussion”,with Bandt stating he had “full confidence” in the Victorian senator. Nonetheless,the Greens have a problem,and they know it. They will not talk about it and are doing their best to starve the story of oxygen,but one of their stars is being accused of conduct they would never tolerate from others. The party that is quick to shame others over claims of their moral failings now has to look in the mirror.
It is a nightmare for Bandt after he took the party to its best result on record at this year’s election. Bandt would usually hold a press conference when parliament is sitting,but he kept a low profile this week after this masthead’s political reporter,Lisa Visentin,revealed the admissions from Mejia-Canales. (Not surprisingly,he is no longer Thorpe’s chief of staff after calling her behaviour “truly awful” in an email in June.)
Bandt did not even respond to Aunty Geraldine when she complained to him in writing last year. Imagine the outrage at a Labor or Liberal leader who took the same approach. The Greens leader only sent a response on Wednesday,after two days of media coverage. By contrast,she received a swift response from Senate president Scott Ryan,a Liberal,last year.