Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe is slammed by Matt Canavan for push to rename Victoria and Queensland

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has been slammed by Matt Canavan for her push to rename Victoria and Queensland because they honour the ‘murderous’ British empire.

Ms Thorpe was chosen on Saturday to replace outgoing Greens leader Richard Di Natale just days after controversially suggesting both states change their names out of respect for the Aboriginal community. 

Queensland Nationals Senator Mr Canavan rubbished the Indigenous activist’s proposal, and said with tongue firmly in cheek he would consider Queensland changing its name if Victoria does so first.

‘Maybe they could change their name to Mexico. It would reduce confusion. We are better off just ignoring these crazy Greens who want to trash our history,’ he told the Courier Mail.  

Liberal senator Matt Canavan rubbished the indigenous activisit’s proposal, and said he would only consider Queensland changing its name if Victoria does so first

‘Queenslanders have picked themselves up and rebuilt after floods, droughts, cyclones and fires. Renaming our state would dishonourably turn our backs on these past achievements and sacrifices.

‘(The Greens’) inability to see any good in their grandparents reveals their ungrateful, self-centred and rootless approach to politics.’

Ms Thorpe, who represented the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 2017 and 2018, is calling for the change because the state is named after British Empire ruler Queen Victoria.

‘Anything that’s named after someone who’s caused harm or murdered people, then I think we should take their name down,’ she said last week.

Ms Thorpe, the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Parliament of Victoria, believes Indigenous groups and the state government should consider the idea during treaty talks. 

‘It could even stay the same if that’s what people want, if that’s part of the negotiation outcome of a treaty where everyone gets to understand both sides,’ Ms Thorpe said. 

Ms Thorpe, who represented the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 2017 and 2018, is calling for the change because the state is named after British Empire ruler Queen Victoria

Ms Thorpe believes a rename of the state should be considered during treaty talks between the state government and indigenous groups

Her comments come as Black Lives Matter protests spark calls to tear down monuments linked to Australia’s colonial past across the country. 

The politician made similar comments about her home state of Victoria earlier on Wednesday.

‘Maybe that’s something they (the Queensland government) could negotiate (in a treaty),’ she said.

‘Given we’re all talking about the colonial past and how everything’s named as a result of invasion of this country, why wouldn’t we negotiate that (name changes)?

‘It may be that it stays the same. But why wouldn’t we put that on the table. Maybe we need to be making decisions, changing place names, state names and anything else that causes harm.’ 

But the comments by Ms Thorpe were panned on Twitter, where critics accused her of ‘jumping on a bandwagon’ and pointed out that her surname ‘Thorpe’ had English origins so could also have to be changed under her own reasoning.  

The history of early British settlement in Australia is intensely controversial and has been characterised by Aborigines as an ‘invasion’.

After several sightings by European explorers, British naval captain James Cook arrived in Queensland in 1770 and claimed the territory for George III.

The territory was once part of New South Wales but since the seat of the colony, Sydney, was too far away, northern settlers petitioned to separate.

Queen Victoria granted permission to become a separate colony in 1859, and the new colony was named Queensland (Queen’s land) in her honour. Similarly, Victoria was also named after Queen Victoria when the colony was established in 1851. 

Ms Thorpe thinks Victoria should be renamed over its association with Queen Victoria (pictured)