Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has addressed the media after she was not in the Senate during a censure motion against her for her protest against Charles III last month.
The censure motion, which passed 46-12 in the Senate on Monday morning, was notable for Senator Thorpe not being present.
Speaking to the media at Parliament House in Canberra, the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung Senator said her flight had been delayed in Melbourne, which meant she couldn't attend the vote.
"I had Minister Watt texting me while I'm on the plane," she said.
"I said, 'I'm on a plane delayed. Can you wait? I want to be there.' And so, I was denied my right to be in that chamber whilst everybody else voted to shut me down. I'm not one to be shut down."
Senator Thorpe later clarified she meant Senator and Trade Minister Don Farrell, rather than Senator Watt.
"Two old white blokes in a suit, they all look the same to me after a while here," she said.
Neither Senator Thorpe, nor United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet - who was also censured for a tweet using various slurs last week - were in the chamber during the vote, which elicited criticism from Nationals Senator Matt Canavan.
The Queensland Senator said he would have supported the motion, but the government "brought them on without the senators here to hear the arguments against them or defend themselves".
"This can only be described as a Kangaroo Court process," he wrote on Twitter.
"We have unfortunately cheapened what should be one of the more serious actions the Senate can take."
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Former Labor and now Australian Voice Senator Fatima Payman also criticised the timing of the motion, writing: "So much for democracy."
"When Senator Thorpe informed the government that her Qantas flight is running late, they ignored her and proceeded with the censure motion against her. She was refused the right to respond. [Senator Thorpe] has that right as much as any other senator," she said.
In response, Senator Thorpe said she and Senator Canavan "have a lot in common actually".
"It was good to see him backing me up, and on process, because that's my argument … where's the due diligence, where's the process, for me to be in that chamber and to be able to respond," she told reporters.
"They didn't afford me that opportunity when my staff worked very, very hard to have that motion postponed till later in the day until I arrived.
"So, the government didn't want me in the chamber, they probably held up the plane, who knows. So here I am. I'm here, and I'll make a noise all day if I have to."
Senator Thorpe used her statement earlier in the day to reference the Māori protests in Aotearoa/New Zealand over the Treaty Principles Bill, which saw Parliament briefly suspended after Māori members staged a haka to disrupt the vote.
As she was speaking to reporters, she ripped up a piece of paper in reference to Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
Senator Thorpe said: "If we look at what our brothers and sisters did in New Zealand, [the] censure motion is like that to me. I don't give a damn about [the] censure motion. In fact, I'm going to use it for kindling later on in the week."
"As I say, you got 3.5 years left of me and I'll continue to decolonise and in a way that is best for this country. Best for everybody in this country," Senator Thorpe said.
The Victorian Senator was both criticised and congratulated for her protest against last month, where she was removed from a parliamentary reception for King Charles after shouting "you are not my king" and "this is not your country".
She reiterated that she'd protest the 'colonising" King again - or any monarch - should they come to "our country" again.
"I will keep doing it. I will resist colonisation in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands, First Peoples are the real sovereigns," Senator Thorpe said.
"You don't have some random King rock up and say he's sovereign. Would you like that happening to your home? Would you like someone to knock on your door and say, 'Time for you to leave, I'm taking over, and these are the new rules of your house'? Well, not on my watch."
