Exclusive: two senators sponsor Senate motion calling for a review of rules covering discriminatory language and behaviour

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Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi will ask the Senate’s procedure committee to investigate racism and sexism in federal parliament, raising concerns about “white privilege” and how women of colour are treated in politics.

The two senators, former colleagues in the Greens before Thorpe quit the party for the crossbench, have co-sponsored a Senate motion calling for investigation into whether the chamber’s rules should be updated to “eliminate language, behaviour, decision-making, and practices that are sexist, racist or otherwise exclusionary and discriminatory”.

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