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AFP – Agence France Presse

March 23, 2023

An Australian senator on Thursday claimed she was “assaulted” by police at a rally in Canberra, prompting an official review.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe was brought to the ground during an altercation with officers at a small anti-trans event, where she was launching a counterprotest.

Cell phone footage of the incident showed Thorpe trying to burst past police officers toward the protest and being dragged back by a male officer.

As officers tried to help Thrope to her feet she crawled away shouting “let me go”, and then walked away.

The Australian Federal Police said it was aware of the matter, adding that it was under investigation.

“The interactions between the AFP and protesters will be reviewed, and an incident has been referred to the AFP’s Professional Standards Command,” police said in a statemThorpe is known for attention-grabbing protest actions.

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Farmers for Climate Action

I’m writing to you from Parliament House where we’ve just hosted an event with farmers we brought here from around the country, joined by the Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt and the Leader of the Nationals and the Shadow Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud.

We were also joined by balance of power Senator David Pocock, Deputy Nationals Leader and Shadow Minister for Water Senator Perin Davey, and many more, including Greens Senator Barbara Pocock, Mark Coulton MP, Brian Mitchell MP, Sam Birrell MP and independent MPs Rebekha Sharkie and Helen Haines. 

It was an event to celebrate the release of our Farming Forever report, and to bring together our amazing climate-smart farming scholars, some of Australia’s very best farmers.

It’s been quite the visit to the nation’s capital. I landed in Canberra at 1pm on Wednesday and by 1.30pm, I was doing a press conference with the Member for Indi Dr Helen Haines and NFF CEO Tony Mahar calling for greater funding for agriculture extension to support farmers to reduce emissions. 

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s latest report released this week provides a stark backdrop to this important work to secure real emissions reductions and provide the support for farmers across Australia to do their part and secure a prosperous future.

This is our second delegation to Parliament this month, as we continue to push for stronger ambition in the Government’s Safeguard Mechanism reforms, and ensure that farmers are not left to clean up the mess for big polluters.

We couldn’t do this without you.

We rely on donations from supporters like you to do the work we do. Please make a donation today to allow us to continue pushing for strong climate policy that protects Australian farming.

Thank you so much for your support and we look forward to continuing the good work over the next few months.

Kind regards,
Fiona Davis

CEO, FfCA

PS, If you missed the report launch last week you can watch a recording here. Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, as well as CEO of NRM regions, Kate Andrews, and farmer Olivia Lawson helped us launch it. It was fantastic and sparked almost endless media! (Did you catch us on Landline?)

Farmers for Climate Action
https://farmersforclimateaction.org.au