“This mock outrage is ridiculous. While people are dying and starving in Gaza, politicians and media are once again clutching their pearls and chasing a scandal.”
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash rebuked Thorpe for the comments, saying they were “disgraceful and shocking but unfortunately unsurprising”. The Coalition has flagged a potential censure motion against the senator when the upper house sits again at the end of the month.
On Monday morning, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was critical of Thorpe’s speech, saying that the domestic “temperature needed to be turned down”.
“I echo what the prime minister said about us needing to turn the temperature down, regardless of the fact that now is a time for hope … the concept of wanting to inflame, push the temperature up, is not what anyone should be doing, least of all a Member of Parliament,” Burke told ABC Radio National.
“I’m not going to respond to that by increasing the heat in the opposite direction. I really think it’s a time for just turning the temperature down … there are two things that Australians have been wanting.
“They’ve been wanting the killing to end, and they’ve been wanting to make sure that the conflict’s not brought here, we might be looking right now at the chance for the killing to end. So, let’s also try to calm things down here.”
Burke said a censure motion would be a matter for the Senate. Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek told Nine’s Today on Monday that a censure motion or similar repercussions for Thorpe were “a matter to be decided down the track”.
Senator Thorpe has been contacted for comment.
With AAP
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