The Senate has erupted in an angry argument over racism after independent senator Fatima Payman accused One Nation leader Pauline Hanson of spreading hatred, while Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe was suspended from the chamber for a day for throwing papers at Hanson in fury.
Senate President Sue Lines sanctioned Thorpe on Wednesday night by formally “naming” her for her disorderly conduct, leading Foreign Minister Penny Wong to move that Thorpe be suspended from the upper house on Thursday, the final sitting day.
“All Australians have a right to be safe at work,” Wong said, drawing a parallel between threatening behaviour in the senate and any other workplace to justify the rare sanction.
Labor and the Coalition backed the motion, while the Greens voted against. Hanson and her One Nation colleague Malcolm Roberts voted for the suspension, as …