Lidia Thorpe says Voice support hinges on deaths in custody and child removal reforms

Gunditjmara, Gunnai and Djab Wurrung woman and Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has drawn a line in the sand for the federal government when it comes to securing her support and the support of the Greens for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Senator Thorpe says support hinges on the federal government implementing the remaining recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) and the 1997 Bringing them Home report on Indigenous child removals.

“That’s what we have on the table with the government,” Senator Thorpe said.

“We have said, we want to see those recommendations fully implemented.

“They know that’s what it will take to sway us over the line.”

There were 339 recommendations made in the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, but a review of the recommendations in 2018 found only 64 per cent had been fully implemented.

Similarly, 54 recommendations were made in the Bringing them Home report but a 2017 review found the majority had not been acted on.

The Commonwealth and the states and territories would be responsible for actioning the reforms from both reports, both individually and cooperatively.

“We want the Labor government to implement them to show good faith, before we make a decision on whether we support the Voice or not — it is certainly there as a negotiation tool,” Senator Thorpe said.

The Greens had previously stated that the party would not stand in the way of progressing a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, but Senator Thorpe – the party spokesperson for Indigenous affairs — has staunchly refused to endorse the Voice so far.

She was also one of several delegates who walked out of the Uluru Dialogues – the convention that eventually came up with the Uluru Statement – in 2017.

“They [Labor] have an opportunity now and they are refusing or kicking the can down the road to real justice and implementing those recommendations,” Senator Thorpe said.

Parliament still split on referendum support

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised to deliver a referendum on the Voice by the end of the year, with some speculation that the vote could be as early as August.

Before the referendum can be called legislation to alter the constitution must first pass the parliament, and the government has indicated it intends to put that bill forward in the first quarter of the year.

The government has made it clear it wants to get bipartisan support for the referendum, but there has been little progress on shoring up support across the parliament since the prime minister announced the draft question last year.