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Lidia Thorpe
Lidia Alma Thorpe (born 18 August 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian (Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung) politician. She is of English and Aboriginal descent. She has been a senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state. She was a member of the Australian Greens until February 2023, when she quit the party over disagreements concerning the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and became a key figure in the "progressive No" campaign against the Voice referendum in October 2023. Thorpe served as the Greens' deputy leader in the Senate from June to October 2022.
Thorpe has previously been a member of the Victorian Parliament. On winning the Northcote state by-election on 18 November 2017, she became the first known Aboriginal woman elected to the state's parliament. She served as the member for the division of Northcote in the Legislative Assembly from 2017 to 2018.
Thorpe has received media attention for her support of the Blak Sovereign Movement and her criticism of the legitimacy of Australian political institutions, which she views as the legacy of colonialism. The Senator is noted for her inflammatory rhetoric. In 2023, she described her anti-Australia Day campaign as "war". She was criticised by politicians and Indigenous leaders for shouting at King Charles III during his visit to Parliament in 2025. The Australian Federal Police announced an investigation into her 2025 remarks at a Pro-Palestinian rally that she would "burn down Parliament to make a point".
Lidia Alma Thorpe was born on 18 August 1973 in Carlton, Victoria, to Roy Illingworth and Marjorie Thorpe. She is of English, Irish, Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent.
Thorpe grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood and went to Gold Street Primary School in Clifton Hill. She studied Year 7 at Fitzroy High School, Year 8 at Collingwood High, returned to Fitzroy High for Year 9, but left soon afterwards, at the age of 14. She has stated that, at school, she was harassed "as a black kid," and she would retaliate by punching "boys and the girls out," instead of which, now, she says, "I’ve learnt to use my mouth."
Her first job was working with her uncle Robbie Thorpe at the Koori Information Centre at 120 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, which at that time was "a hub of Black political activity". She says that from that day onward, she has worked continuously, apart from six-month breaks after the birth of each of her children.
She won the 2021 Social Impact Award from Swinburne University of Technology, from which she graduated in 2007 with a Diploma of Community Development.
Thorpe has worked as a project manager with the East Gippsland Shire Council, Indigenous manager at Centrelink and manager at Lake Tyers Aboriginal Training Centre.
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Lidia Thorpe
Lidia Alma Thorpe (born 18 August 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian (Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung) politician. She is of English and Aboriginal descent. She has been a senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state. She was a member of the Australian Greens until February 2023, when she quit the party over disagreements concerning the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and became a key figure in the "progressive No" campaign against the Voice referendum in October 2023. Thorpe served as the Greens' deputy leader in the Senate from June to October 2022.
Thorpe has previously been a member of the Victorian Parliament. On winning the Northcote state by-election on 18 November 2017, she became the first known Aboriginal woman elected to the state's parliament. She served as the member for the division of Northcote in the Legislative Assembly from 2017 to 2018.
Thorpe has received media attention for her support of the Blak Sovereign Movement and her criticism of the legitimacy of Australian political institutions, which she views as the legacy of colonialism. The Senator is noted for her inflammatory rhetoric. In 2023, she described her anti-Australia Day campaign as "war". She was criticised by politicians and Indigenous leaders for shouting at King Charles III during his visit to Parliament in 2025. The Australian Federal Police announced an investigation into her 2025 remarks at a Pro-Palestinian rally that she would "burn down Parliament to make a point".
Lidia Alma Thorpe was born on 18 August 1973 in Carlton, Victoria, to Roy Illingworth and Marjorie Thorpe. She is of English, Irish, Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent.
Thorpe grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood and went to Gold Street Primary School in Clifton Hill. She studied Year 7 at Fitzroy High School, Year 8 at Collingwood High, returned to Fitzroy High for Year 9, but left soon afterwards, at the age of 14. She has stated that, at school, she was harassed "as a black kid," and she would retaliate by punching "boys and the girls out," instead of which, now, she says, "I’ve learnt to use my mouth."
Her first job was working with her uncle Robbie Thorpe at the Koori Information Centre at 120 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, which at that time was "a hub of Black political activity". She says that from that day onward, she has worked continuously, apart from six-month breaks after the birth of each of her children.
She won the 2021 Social Impact Award from Swinburne University of Technology, from which she graduated in 2007 with a Diploma of Community Development.
Thorpe has worked as a project manager with the East Gippsland Shire Council, Indigenous manager at Centrelink and manager at Lake Tyers Aboriginal Training Centre.
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