‘Impossible to achieve’: Marcia Langton slams Greens Voice demands

Influential Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton has criticised the Greens’ position on the Voice to parliament as political gamesmanship, saying they were demanding “impossible” trade-offs in exchange for their support, which she believes the party will ultimately withhold.

Langton, a leading member of the Albanese government’s Indigenous Voice referendum working group, said two of the Greens’ key conditions – legislating their United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Bill and implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody – were not feasible.

Prof Marcia Langton at the Indigenous Garma Festival in East Arnhem land in July. Credit: Tamati Smith/Getty Images

“As far as I’m concerned, that tells me that they are not going to vote for the Voice. I’m very familiar with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and those demands are impossible,” Langton said.

She said the outstanding royal commission recommendations, of which there are more than 330, could only be implemented by state and territory jurisdictions.

“It’s possible in an ideal world [to implement them], but to do it to obtain their vote in the Commonwealth parliament on the Voice either says that they are making it clear that they won’t vote for the Voice or they have no idea of how the federation works.”

The Greens’ formal position is to negotiate with Labor to progress all three elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – a truth-telling commission, a treaty with Indigenous people and the Voice to parliament, preferring it to happen in that order – as well as pushing for the royal commission recommendations and their UN bill.

But in a sign of splintering in the Greens’ position, Senator Lidia Thorpe, the party’s First Nations spokeswoman, last month called the referendum a “waste of money” and criticised the lack of detail around how the Voice would operate, saying “it’s pretty hard to say whether you can support something you know nothing about”.

Langton has been a leading advocate of the Voice to parliament, and was one of the lead author’s of the report exploring models for how it could work. Thorpe, who believes treaty should be the priority, was among a small group of delegates who walked out of the Uluru dialogue in 2017.

Langton urged Greens leader Adam Bandt to make clear whether his party would back the referendum, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed this week would be held in the next financial year.

“It would be very helpful and in the public interest if Adam Bandt would clarify what the Greens policy is because it appears the Greens policy says one thing – and a reasonable person couldn’t possibly agree with it – and then Lidia Thorpe says it’s something else,” Langton said.

Bandt and Thorpe declined to respond directly to Langton’s comments, but a Greens spokeswoman pointed towards their previous statements on the topic as a way of clarifying their position.

In August, Thorpe said the Greens had “made it clear that the Greens want to see progress on all elements of the Statement” and said she was ready to negotiate in “good faith”.

“We will be putting Treaty and a truth commission on the table. We demand full implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Bringing them Home report. We can ensure that First Peoples’ human rights are at the foundation of any Voice to parliament, through passage of my bill on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2022,” she said.

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