Lidia Thorpe opposes Voice to parliament, seen as a powerless tool in a colonial and racist constitution

"I'll vote No. As a Black sovereign woman nothing will change my mind about going into a colonial constitution, particularly a powerless Voice that always has parliamentary supremacy over it. It will also have people like Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese co-chairing the arrangements on what it looks like and how much say our people can have." - Lidia Thorpe

"This referendum is a waste of money. This is a wasted exercise and we should just legislate the so-called Voice into the parliament." - Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe Source: SBS / NITV

In a conversation with NITV Radio, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe reiterated that she will be voting no in the upcoming referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

She argued that she does not subscribe to the proposed amendment to the constitution to include the Voice as this change would be insignificant.

“I’m about real power for our people. We don’t need a referendum for a Treaty. We don’t need a referendum for extra black seats in the senate to sit with me or against me or wherever you want to sit,” Lidia Thorpe said.

“We can have independent Black seats in that place, and I think that is more powerful than any advisory body could ever be. So, my mind is set.”

Lidia Thorpe also explained that Indigenous people can have an advisory body implemented through legislation. She insists she does not subscribe to the current constitution as it was flawed since its inception in 1901 as a racist and colonial document that excludes her people.

In December, I’ll table the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People to the floor of the senate.

Lidia Thorpe

“So, we have always been against constitutional recognition. We shut down the recognise campaign and now we’ve shut down the Voice. But that doesn’t mean that we are shutting down Black people’s voices to infiltrate the parliament as I have in other ways.”

“Legislation is certainly a way where our people can still infiltrate. And we need to change the constitution completely, not enter one that is already racist… We can do that in other ways and particularly, truth and treaty is the journey that we must take as nation.”

Lidia Thorpe said that after October 14 it will be business as usual. She will continue to address the intractable issues besetting First Nations people, pursue the fight to have recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody implemented; work towards curbing the new rampant Stolen Generation manifesting itself in the form of over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, etc.

She also promised to table at the floor of the senate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in December this year, a move she says fellow Deadly sSnators have shied from.