Senator told ‘p*** off back to Pakistan’ by Pauline Hanson SPEECHLESS on Greens ‘double standards’

A senior Greens Senator has been stunned into silence when asked about her party’s double standards over the alleged behaviour of another Greens politician.

Mehreen Faruqi appeared on The Project on Wednesday night to address her ongoing fight with Pauline Hanson, who told her to ‘p*** off back to Pakistan’.

But Ms Faruqi was left speechless when host Waleed Aly surprised her with a question on alleged poor behaviour by Greens senator Lidia Thorpe.

Ms Thorpe is alleged to have unleashed a furious rant at First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chairs Marcus Stewart and Aunty Geraldine Atkinson at a committee room meeting in Parliament House on June 22, 2021.

It is claimed Ms Atkinson, who is aged in her 70s, was so shaken by Ms Thorpe’s behaviour she sought assistance from the parliamentary nurse after the meeting.

Aly asked Ms Faruqi is the Greens standing by Ms Thorpe is a case of not applying the same standards they expect of Ms Hanson to their own side of politics.

Ms Faruqi was at first shocked into silence, but when she replied, she did not answer the question, instead using talking points given to Greens MPs to use on the issue.

‘The Greens’ party room did a wholesale review of our complaints process and made it much stronger and more rigorous,’ she said.

‘And any complaints that come through will go through that process.’

Aly then called her out for not answering his question.

‘That’s different from saying you’re not going to comment on these live allegations,’ he said.

‘We will have more things to say but, as you know, there is a confidential staff matter involved in this, and it’s not really appropriate for me to comment on that publicly,’ Ms Faruqi replied. 

The fallout from Ms Thorpe’s alleged rant led the Greens to issue a set of ‘talking points’ instructing its MPs how to respond to questions on the issue- only for them to be leaked to ABC presenter Patricia Karvelas. 

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi (pictured) was left stunned into silence on The Project on Wednesday night

Ms Thorpe’s former chief of staff David Mejia-Canales was at the meeting and, in a private email published earlier this week, apologised for not ending it sooner after Senator Thorpe’s ‘appalling’ behaviour.

‘The conduct that I witnessed at that meeting was by far one of the most unprofessional displays I have ever seen, not just during the length of my career, but in my life,’ Mr Mejia-Canales said in the email, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The leaked talking points instruct Greens MPs to not directly address the matter.

‘It is inappropriate to discuss staffing matters publicly, but we are confident we have strong processes for addressing complaints that have been strengthened since the Jenkins Review (into Parliament workplace culture),’ the document states.

‘Greens MPs have continued to work closely with the First People’s Assembly of Victoria to further the Treaty process happening in the state.’

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe (pictured) allegedly unleashed a furious tirade at two First Nations representatives at a 2021 Parliament House meeting in Canberra

Ms Atkinson says she lodged a formal complaint about the meeting to Greens leader Adam Bandt in which she described Ms Thorpe’s conduct as ‘vicious’ but that he did not acknowledge it.

While the exact content of the Senator’s outburst has not been revealed, in a separate letter to former Senate president Scott Ryan, Ms Atkinson said Senator Thorpe criticised the Bamblett family, which Atkinson is a member of, and suggested she was involved in Aboriginal organisations that were trying to ‘bring her down’.

‘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,’ Ms Atkinson said.