Senator Lidia Thorpe.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
If the Thorpe-connected candidates – including direct relatives and political allies – are successful,they would form arguably the dominant faction in the body expected to interact with the national Voice to parliament and help select Victorians for the Commonwealth advisory body.
Of the approximately 50 assembly candidates,13 have identifiable links to Thorpe. They include her mother,Marjorie Thorpe,and cousins Alister Thorpe,Lisa Thorpe and Alice Pepper. The assembly is made up of 31 representatives.
Thorpe’s political allies include Ngarra Murray,who as an assembly member last year questioned whetherLabor state election candidate Lauren O’Dwyer lied about her Indigenous heritage,which prompted a rebuke from Premier Daniel Andrews.
Thorpe said last month that she expected her allies to make a run at the assembly election,which will conclude in mid-June. She did not respond to questions about this story.
Thorpe during a debate over the latest Closing the Gap report in March.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Three senior Indigenous figures in Victoria,who spoke anonymously to frankly express their concerns and avoid possible retaliation,said Thorpe’s influence could compromise the assembly’s future relationship with the national Voice that Thorpe shuns.
An eminent Victorian Indigenous leader said her community worried Thorpe’s allies would compromise goodwill with the Victorian government in itsnation-first treaty talks.