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KEY POINTS:
- Independent senator Lidia Thorpe delivered her first address to the National Press Club on Wednesday.
- On the Voice to Parliament referendum, she said a No vote would prove Australia is racist, as would a Yes vote.
- She also outlined her five-step alternative to the Voice.
Those challenges included mass incarceration, the separation of Indigenous children from their parents, the destruction of cultural sites, and a colonial system which oppressed and exploited them “just so a handful of people can profit”, she said.
Thorpe said a victorious No vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum would prove Australia is racist, despite advocating for that position. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
“We know how to care for Country, but we are not allowed to do so. Your laws, your metal bars, concrete and police stand in the way, keeping us from our mother [nature],” she said.
Here are the key takeaways.
Thorpe’s five steps
Thorpe outlined five steps she believed were vital to achieving Indigenous self-determination:
- Truth-telling about Australia’s history
- Implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
- Implementation of recommendations from the Bringing Them Home Report
- Writing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Australian law
- Treaty
Thorpe said treaty negotiations should also include reparations.
Both truth-telling and treaty processes are also explicitly called for in the Uluru Statement From the Heart.
Thorpe says a No vote would prove Australia is racist
“If it’s No, well, we know that the country is racist,” she said.
Thorpe says Labor still has time to convince her to back the Voice. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Asked to explain the apparent contradiction, she said the opposite result would also be a “denial of what the Blak Sovereign Movement is about”.
“[The Yes camp] is hand-on-heart do-gooders who think that they know best for us. That’s a form of racism as well,” she said.
‘Progressive No’ vs ‘Racist No’ camps
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But she flatly rejected suggestions she had aligned with right-wing politicians like Pauline Hanson, insisting there were three groups in the race: the Yes camp, the “racist No” camp, and the “progressive No” camp.
“Yet we are actually doing the opposite. We have done what everyone should do, and actually analysed the proposed Voice … We are merely pointing out that there is no progress, that there is false hope, that we deserve better.”
Land Back vs Native Title
The landmark 1993 Mabo case paved the way for Native Title legislation, which grants Indigenous people certain rights over land to which they have a proven, continued connection.
The Blak Sovereign Movement has declared its opposition to the Voice, calling the proposed body “a weak proposition”. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
But Thorpe dismissed that system as “racist”.
Her alternative?
“This land doesn’t belong to the Crown, come on. It never has, and should be handed back to the First Peoples whose land it is,” she said.
Being in parliament a ‘disgusting privilege’
That was on full display in August, when she described the late Queen Elizabeth II as a “coloniser” in her mandatory oath of allegiance, which she was then forced to retake.
“I’m here to infiltrate the colony. I’m here to rattle the cages of the people who have benefited from the rape and pillage of my people and my land. I’m here to make them uncomfortable.”
Blak Sovereign Movement could run candidates
“I just don’t want to be the one having to organise them and doing all the campaigning. So if that’s what they want to do, then absolutely.”
