Independent senator Lidia Thorpe says people have treated a "metaphor like a national emergency", describing the outrage over her comments about burning down Parliament House as a "joke".
Earlier this month, the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung Senator sparked controversy when, after comparing the Palestinian struggle to that of Indigenous Australians, she said, "we will fight every day, and we will turn up every day, and if I have to burn down Parliament House to make a point ... I am not there to make friends".
Following complaints from multiple politicians, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed it had opened an investigation into whether the remarks breached any laws. In the wake of the controversy, Senator Thorpe downplayed her comments, calling them "clearly a figure of speech" and describing them as "a metaphor for the pain in our communities and the urgent need to end genocide in Palestine and everywhere".
Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday night, she expanded on this, arguing her comments were not a call for "arson," but rather, "challenging colonial systems that continue to harm people for 250 years" and "still refuse to change".
She criticised Parliament for "sitting idly by" while First Peoples suffer, while people in Palestine face genocide, accusing MPs of maintaining a harmful institution rather than reforming it.
"It [Parliament] needs to be rebuilt from the ground up if anything is ever going to change. That's what my words were about," she said.
International human rights experts - including the UN Human Rights Council - have described Israel's actions as genocide, with famine declared in Gaza City and widespread displacement continuing.
The Victorian Senator said the political outrage over her remarks was not about her personally, but rather part of a "competition" between major parties to appear tough and appeal to racist voters.
"The problem isn't my words," Senator Thorpe said.
"All these politicians with their hot takes - their fake outrage - is never really about me. It's about the major parties playing the game of who can be tougher on the naughty little Black girl.
"It's all a competition to look tough in the eyes of the racists out there who want to see black women dragged down and humiliated. It's childish, it's dishonest. It's about counting racist votes."
Politicians on both sides of politics have routinely criticised Senator Thorpe. Last year, she was briefly suspended from the Senate after she tore up paper and threw it at Pauline Hanson after the Queensland Senator questioned the citizenship of WA Senator Fatima Payman.
Senator Thorpe also centred her attacks on the right-wing media, accusing them of twisting her words and manufacturing outrage for profit while ignoring serious issues such as alleged neo-Nazi attacks on First Peoples - including the August assault on Camp Sovereignty.
"These hollowed out, irrelevant news outlets are bleeding audiences, profits and influenced by the day, they'll do anything to grab attention," she said.
Camp Sovereignty, established in 2006 by Krautungalung Elder Robbie Thorpe, is described as a peaceful space for community gathering, reflection, and ceremony. It is also the resting place of repatriated remains of 38 Aboriginal Victorians.
The August 31 attack on the sacred site followed a series of anti-immigration rallies across the country. In footage seen by National Indigenous Times, around 40 men dressed in black - many allegedly linked to the National Socialist Network (NSN) and some carrying flagpoles and sticks - stormed the Indigenous camp.
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Last week, National Indigenous Times reported that 22 MPs had signed a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, and the heads of Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and the respective Directors of Public Prosecutions, calling for the alleged attack to be investigated under hate crime and terrorism laws.
While Victoria Police's counter-terrorism unit has been involved in the investigation, it is understood neither Victoria Police nor the AFP is currently pursuing hate crime charges under the federal criminal code - despite the alleged racial motivations behind the attack.
Senator Thorpe said the decision to investigate her over a "metaphor" while failing to pursue any hate crime charges represented a "racist double standard".
"What a waste of public money and everyone's time," she said.
"The AFP need to stop policing my words and focus on investigating violent hate crimes.
"I will not apologise for speaking. I will not apologise for using a metaphor that makes the pearl clutchers jump. I will not apologise for naming injustice; my words grounded in the pain and suffering of my people; the frustration we feel at a system that continues to fail and violate people."
