Greens Lidia Thorpe admits to undisclosed relationship with ex bikie gang leader - while on law enforcement committee
Thursday, 20 October 2022
The ABC's Jake Evans and Andrew Probyn have done a great job with this comprehensive report:
I'll post an excerpt below.
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe's staff were so alarmed about her dating a former president of an outlaw motorcycle gang, they took the matter to the office of party leader Adam Bandt and an independent parliamentary authority.
Key points:
- Staffers to Lidia Thorpe were concerned about the risk of a perceived conflict of interest from her dating a former bikie while on the law enforcement committee
- Senator Thorpe has confirmed she briefly dated former Rebel president Dean Martin, and did not disclose it to the Greens leader
- Staffer concerns taken to Adam Bandt's office were not passed on to him
Her staff were particularly worried because at the time Senator Thorpe was sitting on the joint parliamentary law enforcement committee, which was receiving confidential briefings about bikie gangs and organised crime.
Senator Thorpe acknowledged she did not advise Mr Bandt of her relationship with Mr Martin, but insisted that confidential committee documents on how the AFP monitors outlaw motorcycle gangs were "treated in confidence".
Senator Thorpe's staff say they learned separately that she was dating Mr Martin when she disclosed the relationship to one of them in May last year. The other was told a month later, in June 2021.
In August 2021 during a remote sitting of parliament, one of the staffers decided to confront Senator Thorpe about the relationship.
Confidential law enforcement committee briefing documents had arrived at the Senator's Melbourne office, detailing how the AFP monitors outlaw motorcycle gangs.
This staffer said Senator Thorpe had come into the office after Question Time that day and told the staffer she had just been with Mr Martin in the park across the road.
The staffer perceived a risk in Senator Thorpe receiving confidential information while being in an undisclosed relationship with Mr Martin, with whom she had been with just hours earlier.
In a work diary entry dated August 25 last year, the staffer wrote of the confrontation with Senator Thorpe: "My advice to Senator is that she must speak to leader's office, that she is at extreme risk of being extorted, particularly if someone finds out".
The entry continues: "Senator (has been) advised that the risks are catastrophic and that she would have to resign. I advised that it was absolutely necessary that I record the fact that I have given her this advice, and that ultimately it was up to her to take it or not.
"She has chosen not to take it … I highlighted the huge, real, risk. She assured me the relationship was no longer underway."
The staffer says Senator Thorpe said she and Mr Martin were using encrypted communications app Signal, "[that] they clear their conversations once a week, that they never meet at their respective homes … and that she was being really careful".