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There was a sense of inevitability as Lidia Thorpe stepped up to the microphones — wearing her heart on her earrings.
It was always going to end like this.
The DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, who has announced she is quitting the federal Greens, was never a natural fit in a partyroom still coming to terms with its expanded size after last year's election.
Thorpe has built a legacy as a fierce campaigner of Indigenous rights. She sees little need for compromise, putting her firmly at odds with a Greens leadership strategy focusing on political pragmatism over policy perfection.
Now sitting alone as an independent crossbencher, she's been freed from party rules and is able to focus her efforts advancing the Blak sovereign movement, which wants to see a treaty before a Voice to Parliament.
"It has become clear to me that I can't do that from within the Greens," Thorpe said at a press conference where she took no questions.
"Now I will be able to speak freely on all issues from a sovereign perspective without being constrained by portfolios and agreed party positions."
Prior to her departure, Thorpe was the Greens' First Nations spokesperson.
For weeks the party has been trying to work out how it could support the Voice to Parliament, while its spokesperson on First Nations didn't.
A deflated sounding Greens leader Adam Bandt, standing alongside deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, later expressed his disappointment at the resignation.
"I am truly sorry to see her leave our partyroom," he said, before dubbing Thorpe a "fighter for her people".
He said the party's constitution would have allowed for Thorpe to advocate a different position to the party, a scenario that would have led to him taking over her portfolio.
Neither the Greens nor Thorpe would say if they had landed on a final position on the referendum.
But all roads point to the Greens joining Labor as Yes campaigners.
With Thorpe now outside the tent, the Greens will be able to advance its support without facing questions about why one of its own doesn't agree.
Thorpe too will be liberated to advocate for whatever policy position she lands on.
If the Newspoll published in The Australian on Monday is anything to go by, the biggest supporters of a Voice to Parliament are Greens voters.
Thorpe, who last year was elected to a six-year Senate term, will take with her some supporters — particularly among the Indigenous community — but support for the Voice from the Greens would neatly align the party with its support base.
Anthony Albanese is likely breathing a sigh of relief. The last thing the prime minister needed was parties on his left, in the Greens, and right, in the Nationals, campaigning against the Voice.
Prior to this, Albanese needed the Greens and one other vote to pass legislation in the Senate.
Thorpe's departure will do little to change the balance of power. Albanese will now need the Greens plus two if the Coalition and Thorpe are against a policy.
He has three votes to pick from in ACT independent David Pocock and the two Jacqui Lambie Network senators having shown a willingness to work with the government.
"Fundamentally, the Greens remain central to balance of power in the Senate," Bandt said.
Thorpe, too, pledged to vote with the Greens on matters relating to climate change.
Publicly, Thorpe and the Greens' leaders played nice.
But there are clear simmering tensions within a party battling growing pains and a broader range of issues it needs to deliberate on.
Thorpe rose to mainstream public attention winning an inner Melbourne state seat at a by-election. A year later, she lost that seat at a general election.
The Greens former and current leaders were keen to see her in Canberra, helping her to replace Richard Di Natale when he retired from politics.
The party stuck by her amid revelations she “briefly dated” the ex-president of the Victorian Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang while sitting on a parliamentary law enforcement committee. That revelation forced her to resign as the party’s deputy leader in the Senate.
Though there might have been public support, Thorpe was far from happy inside the party.
"I do not intend to comment further about my time in the Greens," she said.
Leaving the Greens will do little to put to rest any internal tensions that have been simmering in recent months.