Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Prime Minister of this country has not even got the courage to come out and say that he wants a treaty. He's going straight for constitutional recognition, to put us in there—so that we're nice, good little Aborigines with a parliament supremacy over us at all times. Well done! Well done on the assimilation agenda. You had the Greens' backing, which is why I left.

This is a point in this country where it's the final nail in the coffin. I'll be voting no to this disastrous idea of giving us no power. If this bill gave us power then I would have thought about supporting it, but I can't support something that gives my people no power. I can't support something that is hand-picked by whoever is in power. I can't support something that is just going to be considered as not very important in this place. We know how we operate in this place; it's hard enough to find time for a meeting. Who's going to have time to listen to the Voice's opinion? You don't have to turn up to get the advice; it's just advice. I've been a previous adviser to ministerial groups and women's ministerial advisory bodies—I've done all that. You're just a token adviser.

So happy assimilation day, everybody. Many clans and nations around this country do not support assimilating into such a racist, colonial regime, and we'll continue to push for our sovereignty to be acknowledged. We'll continue to push for a treaty and we'll continue to push for peace—real peace—in this country. Not the peace that we've seen over the last six years of this campaign, and the bullying which has really divided so many families and communities. We're not going away. We have survived. We have survived massacres and murders over the last 230 years, and we'll continue to survive. We will never cede our sovereignty; it's not just a word, it's an action, Greens! We will never cede our sovereignty and we'll fight you to the end for a treaty so that we have real power in this country. So look out!