Lidia Thorpe, who has campaigned for a No vote in the referendum on a Voice to Parliament, says the Voice should be legislated if the referendum fails and the prime minister would be 'weak' to abandon the proposal.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who has become a figurehead for progressive opponents of the Voice to Parliament, says the body should be enshrined in law even if the referendum fails.The No campaigner says Indigenous people need help having their voices heard by parliamentSenator Thorpe told ABC Radio National Breakfast that the prime minister's comments on the weekend he would abandon the Voice proposal if Australians vote it down was "weak".
But Senator Thorpe said there should still be a Voice to Parliament, saying she would support legislation if it was not tied to the constitution."If legislation comes into that parliament saying they want to set up another advisory body and it's going to be fully representative of the people, as long as we're not in that constitution, I'll support it.
But she also chastised the government, saying she had warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Australians were not ready for the referendum and it would provide a platform for racism. "A vote for no is a vote to say, 'Yeah, that is as good as it gets, we can't do anything different,'" he said.On Jerusalem streets, there's an ominous sense that something big is about to happenNine-month investigation into loss of potentially deadly radioactive capsule ends without penalties
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