Lidia Thorpe again at odds on Indigenous voice

Controversial senator Lidia Thorpe has seemingly again broken ranks with Greens colleagues over the Indigenous voice referendum.

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Controversial senator Lidia Thorpe has seemingly again broken ranks with Greens colleagues over the Indigenous voice referendum, saying the government would need to make various commitments if it is to secure her party’s support.

Senator Thorpe, the Greens’ Indigenous affairs spokeswoman, on Thursday said her party would only back the referendum if the government committed to first implementing hundreds of outstanding recommendations from previous inquiries.

“They know that that is what it will take to sway us over the line … to support the voice,” she told ABC news. “While we have these recommendations that will save First Nations people’s lives today, they’re sitting there doing nothing.”

Senator Thorpe’s position is in contrast with commentary from both her and her party in October, when she promised she would not back the No campaign. Fellow Greens MP Sarah Hanson-Young declared her support for the voice that same month and said she expected her colleagues would do the same.

But Senator Thorpe flagged that the Greens’ position remained a matter for negotiation between the party and the government.

She said many of the recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the 1997 Bringing them Home report on Indigenous child removals were yet to be implemented.

A commitment by the government to address those outstanding recommendations could help secure Greens support for the referendum.

“We want the Labor government to implement them in good faith before we make a decision to support the voice or not,” Senator Thorpe said. “It’s certainly there as a negotiation tool.”

Senator Thorpe’s reluctance to back the voice has been an ongoing cause for concern among Indigenous leaders involved in the years-long process.

Constitutional lawyer and Uluru Dialogue member Eddie Synot told The Australian Senator Thorpe’s latest public comments – just months after Senator Hanson-Young’s emphatic endorsement of the voice – appeared to be a case of internal Greens politics.

He also noted a voice would actually help in the delivery of the very recommendations Senator Thorpe is demanding in exchange for her support.

“Having a permanent, constitutionally protected and mandated representative body that enables Indigenous people to mobilise around will have a massive impact in pushing for these kinds of issues to be dealt with and dealt with respectfully,” he said.

The co-designers of the proposed voice model, Tom Calma and Marcia Langton, have previously expressed concerns about Senator Thorpe’s rhetoric.

Professor Calma last year said many Greens were very supportive of the voice and warned others in the party could be “tarred with the brush” of being seen to support Senator Thorpe’s position if they did not clarify their position.

Professor Langton last year accused the Greens of engaging in political gamesmanship by demanding “impossible” trade-offs and called for Senator Thorpe to dumped as the party’s Indigenous affairs spokeswoman over her failure to declare she was dating a former bikie boss while on the joint parliamentary law enforcement committee.