Indigenous Australian senator targeted with neo-Nazi threat ahead of key referendum
Lidia Thorpe accuses PM Albanese and police of failing to protect her, vowing not to hide after racist online clip against her; country set to vote on First Nations peoples’ rights
SYDNEY, Australia — An online video of a neo-Nazi threatening an Australian Indigenous senator sparked widespread condemnation Thursday, nine days before a landmark referendum on First Nations peoples’ rights.
The senator, independent lawmaker Lidia Thorpe, accused Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the police of failing to protect her and refused to be cowed.
“I am not hiding for the next nine days,” she told a news conference. “You are going to hear from me and you are going to see me and I am not scared.”
Some Australian media replayed portions of the video showing a man in a black hood burning an Aboriginal flag.
The man reportedly delivered a Nazi salute and made racist comments as well as threatening Thorpe.
Clare O’Neil, Australia’s home affairs minister, described the video as “abhorrent” and said radical groups were using the referendum to whip up their supporters.
Albanese said he had also seen the video.
“Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It is quite horrific that someone who is self-declared, by his actions and his words, a Neo-Nazi, out there showing such disrespect,” he said.
A man wearing a balaklava has proclaimed support for white Australia, disparaging indigenous Australians with racist insults – the threatening video was sent to Lidia Thorpe by a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi group. pic.twitter.com/wdt7DPH56T
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) October 5, 2023
Australians will vote on October 14 on a constitutional reform that would recognize Indigenous people as the first inhabitants of the continent, and create a body for First Nations peoples to advise the government.
Thorpe opposes the reform, saying it would have little impact, and has urged the government to act first to resolve inequalities such as the high number of Indigenous deaths in custody.
Recent surveys indicate support for the referendum has plummeted over the past year.
Australian federal police said they were made aware of the video on X, previously Twitter, on Tuesday and contacted the platform to have it removed.
Police were investigating and “no further comment will be made at this stage,” a police spokesperson said.
Indigenous-related racism reports have spiked since July, according to University of Technology Sydney criminology professor Chris Cunneen, who leads a project that documents such incidents.
The share of racism complaints in the “Call It Out” register related to the referendum had climbed to about 30 percent since July, he said.
The rate was 8% in previous months.
