‘Happy assimilation day’: Lidia Thorpe embarks on voice tirade in Senate
Lidia Thorpe says the ‘tokenistic, fake’ Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government is the final nail in the coffin that gives her people no power.
Outspoken independent senator Lidia Thorpe has declared the “tokenistic” Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government is the final nail in the coffin that gives her people no power, while wearing a T-shirt inferring the advisory body was fake.
The Indigenous senator embarked on a tirade against the voice as her upper house colleagues spent nearly an hour delivering their final contributions on the government’s Constitutional Alteration Bill, which will pave the way for the referendum to be held between October and December.
Repeating her previous assertion she was in parliament to infiltrate and “destroy the white supremacy that is represented in this place”, Senator Thorpe labelled the Constitution illegal and wished the chamber a “happy assimilation day”.
“The black sovereign movement is a voice that you never allow at the table. If that is anything to go by then your tokenistic voice, what hope has that got? Who’s going to listen to a token voice? You, just you? Do you want the voice to tell you that you need to stop killing our people?” Senator Thorpe said.
“I hope the voice is going to tell them that they’ve got to stop killing our people. They’ve got to stop the suicides, they’ve got to stop assimilating us into their system. We have the oldest constitution on the planet, First Peoples in this country.
“Why are we begging like paupers again to go into a white, racist colonial Constitution that was set up to deny everything that we are. To destroy our lands and waters, to destroy everything as quickly as they could, to extract as much resource from stolen land, to dispossess us and make a nice life for yourselves.
“There is not one law in this country that has ever, ever, ever been good for us, not one. And now we’re meant to accept a powerless voice. It is truly assimilating our people so we’ll fit nicely as your little Indigenous Australians - it’s what you want us to be, right?”
Senator Thorpe, who quit the Greens over the party’s support for the voice, wore a t-shirt with the slogan “gammin”, which is slang used by Aboriginal Australians meaning “to pretend”, “be inauthentic” or to describe something as pathetic, according to the SBS.
She continually interjected during the debate and when the vote on the legislation - passing 52 to 19 - was read out by Senate President Sue Lines
Senator Lines asked Senator Thorpe to cover up the T-shirt slogan, as slogans are banned in the chamber.
Senator Thorpe referred to her gammin T-shirt, which she said “as we know is fake, pretend, a joke and that’s what I think a powerless voice is to this place”.
Opposition Indigenous Australians senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said if the referendum was successful, Australia would be divided forever.
She asked Australians to look at the route of the government’s proposal for a voice.
“Ask themselves if they truly believe that this is the answer? Will an extra layer of bureaucracy and red tape do anything more to help Indigenous Australians? Will a Canberra body of academic experts do anything more to close the gap … (or) bring us closer together?” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.
She said Anthony Albanese mocked concerns raised about the voice but the reality was he could not guarantee it wouldn’t advise on matters like submarines and parking tickets.
“The Prime Minister wants us to blindly trust him to allow his blank cheque – he cannot guarantee anything,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.
Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said Indigenous Australians were asking for a very simple request to be recognised in the Constitution by voting for the voice.
Senator McCarthy, an Indigenous woman representing the Northern Territory, said she was a little bit concerned by the tone of the debate and asked both the Yes and No sides to be respectful of each other.
“This is a critical moment in our country’s history, it is the right thing to do,” Senator McCarthy said.
“It is time now to put this question to the Australian people.
“Can I say how incredibly proud I am to be able to stand and speak for the voice and the importance of being able to go to a referendum and say Yes for our country, Yes for a better future, Yes for First Nations people to be able to make decisions in terms of advising the parliament and executive.”
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