Lidia Thorpe calls on Labor to cancel voice referendum

Lidia Thorpe says reparations must go to Indigenous people ­over colonisation, but there isn’t enough money to pay for what was ‘stolen’.

A failure to negotiate financial compensation paid to Indigenous people under a successful treaty process could ‘send the country broke’, according to Lidia Thorpe.

Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe says future treaties between the commonwealth and Aboriginal people must be negotiated in a way that avoids the country going broke, declaring there is “a lot of money owed to First Peoples”.

In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Senator Thorpe said reparations must be paid to Indigenous people ­because of colonisation, but ­acknowledged governments did not have enough money to pay for what was “stolen”.

The Indigenous senator, who described herself as part of the “progressive No” campaign, also called on Anthony Albanese to cancel the referendum on a proposed voice to parliament, which she labelled as “window-dressing for constitutional recognition”.

Senator Thorpe laid out a five-point plan for Labor to pursue ­instead of the voice to parliament: truth telling; adopting all recommendations of two government reports; adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People; and treaty.

“We should call off the referendum,” she said. “It has caused nothing but harm and division. And for what? There won’t be change until this society changes.

“Until this society’s thinking, values, attitudes and systems have been revolutionised in order to ensure real self-determination, we cannot continue the legacy of the Australian colony.”

Labor has adopted all three ­elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which includes voice, truth telling and treaty, but the Prime Minister has sought to distance himself from treaty making before the referendum is held.

Senator Thorpe said Australia would be confirmed as a racist country if the referendum was unsuccessful, despite advocating for a No vote. “I don’t think a Yes or No result is going to make any difference regardless of what it is. If it is a No, well, we know that the country is racist,” she said.

She added that the Uluru Statement from the Heart was a “romantic, spiritual notion” and suggested it was impossible for one federal representative body to speak for all clan groups.

When discussing reparations for Indigenous people, Senator Thorpe pointed to the extraction of resources over the past 200 years, as well as “stolen” sandstone that had been used during the construction of the Victorian parliament. “It’s up to those clans and ­nations, but there is a lot of money owed to First Peoples,” she said.

Mr Albanese formally ­opposed reparations for Indigenous Australians by arguing there was nothing in the Uluru Statement from the Heart about financial compensation.

Senator Thorpe on Wednesday said Labor must pursue truth telling, implement all recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and institute the 1997 Bringing Them Home Report, which aims to end the separation of First Nations families.

Speaking in Brisbane after a national cabinet meeting, Mr Albanese said he was open to having further discussions with Senator Thorpe about Indigenous issues.