Lidia Thorpe and Indigenous affairs minister Malarndirri McCarthy have condemned an alleged attempted bombing at a Perth Invasion Day rally.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe and Indigenous Australians minister Malarndirri McCarthy spoke in the federal senate chamber on Tuesday.
Thorpe introduced a motion condemning the actions of a 31-year-old man accused of throwing a fragment bomb into a crowd of about 2,500 people at Perth’s Invasion Day rally on 26 January.
The motion was passed and called on the federal government to condemn the alleged attack.
Thorpe said the trauma experienced by First Nations people had been compounded by what she described as silence from politicians and the media.
She said the incident should be treated as an act of terror and criticised the lack of an immediate response from national leaders.
McCarthy said the alleged attack targeted a peaceful First Nations rally and amounted to an assault on Australia’s social cohesion.
She said condemnation of such violence must be consistent across government, opposition and the crossbench.
