[Published Friday October 14 2022]

THE Australian Greens have attempted to clarify their stance on the voice to parliament proposal this week following a disputed report in The Australian that Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe met with Indigenous businessman Warren Mundine to discuss a ‘no’ campaign.

Ms Thorpe is the first Aboriginal woman to represent Victoria in the Senate and is the Greens First Nations spokesperson.

Her mother is Marjorie Thorpe, who was the Greens candidate for Gippsland in the federal election in May.

Mr Mundine is a former federal Liberal Party candidate and is expected to campaign against a referendum on the voice to parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to holding a referendum in his first term.

The report suggested that Ms Thorpe had spoken to Mr Mundine about their joint opposition to the referendum. Ms Thorpe had previously called the referendum a waste of money and said advancing a treaty was more important. But she said The Australian report was “false and misleading”, and that she had not discussed a no campaign with Mr Mundine, and said she would not campaign against the Voice to Parliament.

In an interview with the Gippsland Times, Greens state candidate for Eastern Victoria Mat Morgan clarified the Greens stance on the Voice to Parliament.

“The Greens have been unequivocally supportive of all elements of the Uluru Statement

(from the Heart). We were the first party to come out behind that,” Mr Morgan said.

“As a party we’ve sent (Federal Greens leader) Adam Bandt and Lidia Thorpe to negotiations with Labor about their model of the voice. We want to see progression on all three elements of the Uluru Statement.

“These conversations are happening behind closed doors respectively, by all accounts.”

The three elements of Uluru Statement are: Voice, Treaty and Truth.

On Wednesday, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the party supported the Indigenous voice campaign, and expected her colleagues to do the same.

She noted that Ms Thorpe has said she would not be campaigning for the ‘no’ campaign.