Incoming Indigenous Labor MP calls Greens a bigger threat to a Voice to parliament than Coalition

The incoming Indigenous MP for Australia’s Red Centre has declared the Greens are a bigger threat to the Voice to parliament than the Coalition.

Newly elected Country Liberal Party senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price outside Alice Springs on Monday. Picture: Chloe Erlich

The incoming Indigenous MP for Australia’s red centre says the Greens are a bigger threat to the voice to parliament than the ­Coalition, as the left-wing party pushes a treaty between the government and Aboriginal people before any ­national Indigenous body.

Greens leader Adam Bandt on Monday dug in on the party’s ­official position that a $250m truth commission and a treaty process were higher priorities than Labor’s promised referendum on an Indigenous voice.

Marion Scrymgour. Picture: Floss Adams.

Tiwi woman Marion Scrymgour, Labor’s likely victor in the knife-edge count for the seat of Lingiari, said she believed the greatest threat to constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians did not come from the right but from the hard left.

“I’m not so much worried about the Liberals; it’s more the Greens,” she said.

“While they say they are friends of Indigenous people, they’re not really because they just want to run their outrageous agendas all the time.”

Victoria’s treaty process has been running for almost four years and negotiations have not started. In Canada’s province of British Columbia, the best known example of a modern treaty with First Nations people, the process lasted more than a decade.

The Greens were the first party to fully endorse the Uluru statement and its call for a voice in 2017 but they changed their policy after Uluru detractor Lidia Thorpe joined their ranks as a senator in 2020. Senator Thorpe was among activists at the time of the summit who walked out over the voice proposal, arguing a treaty should be top priority.

While Mr Bandt has previously said the Greens would not block a referendum, he has confirmed the party wants progress on a truth commission and a treaty in this term of parliament.

Adam Bandt. Picture: Josh Woning

“They are important things that we think we can get done during this parliament,” he said.

Incoming Alice Springs Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the Greens were hopelessly out of touch with ­Indigenous issues in regional Australia.

“The extremism, the radicalism of the Greens, it’s very concerning,” she said.

“The Greens might want to look back with truth hearings but there are things happening right now that are far more urgent like the safety of women and children in regional communities.”

Incoming Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney said on Monday that the new government supported a treaty but it would take time.

“Treaties are complex. We need to look at the states and ­territories that already have ­treaty processes under way and look at the structures in place, the architecture,” she said. Competing priorities in Indigenous ­affairs in the new parliament have emerged as a record number of Indigenous Australians prepare to become MPs.

Counting from Saturday’s election continued on Monday but Australians have voted nine and possibly 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into federal parliament.

Ms Nampijinpa Price described the new Albanese government’s proposed referendum on the Indigenous voice as “a distraction” from the pressing issues ­facing Aboriginal people in ­remote communities.

The outspoken Warlpiri-Celtic woman said she would lobby Labor to keep the cashless debit card – a measure she sees as “a protective blanket for marginalised people” – and to block the reintroduction of alcohol into Northern Territory homelands.  Ms Nampijinpa Price said she hoped that Labor’s Indigenous MP in the NT, Malindirri McCarthy, and Ms Scrymgour – if she was elected – could work together on the issues affecting Indigenous women and children in the Territory, such as domestic violence.

Existing Indigenous senators include Pat Dodson from Labor, and independent Jacqui Lambie from Tasmania. The Greens’ two Indigenous senators – Ms Thorpe and Dorinda Cox – were also returned.  Ms Burney did not comment ­directly on the Greens’ urgent ­demand for progress towards truth-telling and treaty.

However, she confirmed the truth-telling process that she planned would involve local governments and would not take the form of court-style hearings.

Ms Burney’s priority was to consult all Australians about the Indigenous voice, its role and the question they would be asked in the referendum. She said it was important ­people knew the Uluru statement called for an advisory body to the parliament on issues directly ­affecting Indigenous ­people.

“People need to be clear what they are voting for and need to be clear on the role of the voice,” Ms Burney said.

“Uluru was absolutely clear … the voice is modest, it is generous and it does not have veto rights that would usurp parliament.”