![Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/209641672/ace57434-d0e7-4697-af49-0717e9c12c5f.jpg/r0_288_5400_3324_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Further claims of racism in the Greens have emerged, with Pakistani-born NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi revealing she has also experienced racism within the party.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It comes after former Greens and now independent senator Lidia Thorpe said she would be lodging a racism complaint against the Greens with the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Senator Thorpe told the ABC on Sunday she experienced racism in "every workplace, and the Greens were no different".
In Senate estimates last week, she accused Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young of not standing up to racism, which she said she faced while in the party.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Senator Faruqi, the Greens' deputy leader and anti-racism spokesperson, said she has also experienced racism in "each and every single" organisation she has worked in.
"And yes, I have experienced racism in the Greens," she stated.
"The level of racism that is directed at you though, when you are a public figure, a person of colour, or a woman where the intersections of sexism and racism become really visceral, is just another level.
"Racism is systemic in this country, and it has to be stamped out and eradicated at every single level. And that does include the Greens."
READ MORE:
Senator Faruqi said that was why she pushed for an anti-racism portfolio within her party.
"It is not enough just to say that you're not a racist," she said.
"We have to work actively every single day to make sure that the workplace we are hearing and the organisations that we work in are actually free of racism."
Speaking to journalists alongside Senator Faruqi, Greens leader Adam Bandt said other First Nations MPs and MPs of colour have also told him they've experienced discrimination in society and within the Greens.
"This is something that we all have an obligation to stamp out," he said, adding that the Greens were "an anti-racist party that will fight racism".
When asked about formal complaints against the Greens, Mr Bandt said he would not comment.
"As it's been made clear, there's been questions raised by Senator Thorpe before about potential proceedings," he said.
Mr Bandt said his party has not received any proceedings regarding Senator Thorpe's complaint.
Greens senator and the party's Indigenous Australians spokesperson Dorinda Cox later on Tuesday told the ABC that "similarly to Senator Thorpe and Senator Faruqi, I've also experienced racism across the span of both my personal but also professional life".
Senator Cox said she has "toyed with with the idea of lodging formal complaints in relation to levels of racism" she experienced as a First Nations woman on a number of occasions.
She said it was everyone's responsibility - not just political parties' - to "ensure that we are making it safe for everybody and not to experience institutionalised racism".
The development comes after ABC journalist Stan Grant announced he would be stepping down as Q+A presenter amid ongoing racist abuse.