Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has declared “I will not be campaigning no” in the looming referendum over constitutional recognition and a Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Australians.
And The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal Thorpe tweeted Senator Pauline Hanson asking for help to stop constitutional change in March 2017, three years before the Victorian senator entered federal parliament.
The tweet from Thorpe, sent from the now-suspended @lidia_thorpe Twitter account, stated: “Pauline help us stop the constitution changes. Aboriginal people say no to constitutional change”.
The tweet sent by Lidia Thorpe to Pauline Hanson
At the time Thorpe was not a federal Greens senator and the Uluru Statement from the Heart would not be finalised for another two months.
The Australian reported Tuesday that Thorpe had met with Indigenous businessman and former Liberal candidate Warren Mundine to discuss working together on the “No” campaign.
But after being approached about her tweet to Hanson, and whether she would join the “no” campaign, Thorpe moved to shut down any suggestion she would oppose the Voice.
“The tweet relates to an old debate around the Liberals hijacking constitutional recognition. Pauline Hanson is no friend to First Nations people, I have no interest in working with her,” she said.
“As you would expect, I meet with many First Nations stakeholders, and this meeting of Senate Crossbenchers with a number of stakeholders was to discuss the importance of progressing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
“Contrary to false and misleading reports, this meeting was not solely between myself and Warren Mundine, but with senate crossbenchers and staff. The meeting was taken at the request of Mundine. We did not discuss support for a No campaign on Voice and I will not be campaigning no.”
Reached for comment, Hanson said she had “no intention of trying to work with” Thorpe. “She can do her campaign and I will do mine.”
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe says the meeting with Warren Mundine was not about constitutional change.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mundine was contacted for comment.
Eight months after the tweet was sent, Thorpe was elected at a byelection to be a Greens MP for the Victorian state seat of Northcote, which she held for a little over a year.
The May 2017 Uluru Statement called for a Voice to parliament be enshrined in the constitution, then a Makarrata Commission be established to supervise truth-telling about Indigenous history and “agreement-making”, or treaty – which the Greens supported.
Since entering the federal Senate in October 2020, Thorpe and the Greens have re-ordered the party’s policies to prioritise a truth-telling process, followed by a treaty with indigenous Australians, and then constitutional recognition. The party’s position was changed to reflect this at the end of 2020.
In August, Thorpe signalled the Greens were more open to backing constitutional recognition first – the path chosen by the Albanese government and recommended by the Uluru Statement from the Heart – but then slammed the referendum as a “waste of money” just weeks later.
Thorpe, who is the party’s deputy leader in the Senate, has infuriated colleagues by publicly criticising the Voice proposal.
One of Thorpe’s colleagues in the federal party, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, said the vast majority of Greens members strongly supported constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.
Marcus Stewart, a member of the federal government’s referendum working group said: “The path to a successful referendum is a path best walked together and not walked alone, many of our community will expect the Greens to stand shoulder and shoulder with us throughout this journey just as they have many times before.”
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