‘I am here for a reason’: defiant Lidia Thorpe says she will stay put to pursue Treaty and Sovereignty

Lidia Thorpe has declared her intention to remain in parliament despite some calls to resign following her defection on Monday. The Victorian senator made headlines with her announcement that she was leaving the Australian Greens to become an independent. Having only recently been elected to a six-year term as a senator for the minor party, some questioned whether she should give up her seat for another Greens member. When asked what she would say to such suggestions, the senator was defiant. “Check your privilege,” she said to any such detractors.

“Check yourself, because I am here for a reason. I intend to continue a lot of the work I was already doing.”

The Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman cited the lower life expectancy of First Nations women as reason enough to stay in parliament for the remainder of her term. “My time’s ticking,” she told NITV.

“I don’t expect to be here and become an Elder or someone that’s just around for the pay and the privilege. I was only ever gonna be here to do one job, and that’s to bring justice for my people in a way that actually saves lives.”

Greens formally support Voice as Thorpe pushes sovereignty

Senator Lidia Thorpe announces she is resigning from the Greens and becoming an independent at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, February 6, 2023. Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

Despite the attention it garnered her defection wasn’t a wholly unexpected move: the disparity between the Greens’ and Thorpe’s respective positions on the Voice was becoming an increasing distraction. While the Greens have now formally announced they will back the referendum’s Yes side, Thorpe has refrained from stating her final position, maintaining that she has not arrived at one. What is not in doubt however is her commitment to another element from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and the longest standing issue in First Nations affairs: treaty & sovereignty. In announcing her defection yesterday, Senator Thorpe said she was committed to the “Blak sovereign movement”. “This country is based on a lie, the lie of terra nullius. The fact… that colonisers set up home here without the consent of First Nations peoples is unfinished business. “So Blak sovereignty is the ultimate power of the people who come from this land, and that is us, First Nations people across this country.

“We have a right to empower ourselves through our own structures, lands and nations. If you want real representation in this country, then only the heads of those clans and nations can give consent.”

The discord between party and senator over the Voice is not the only time they have clashed. Just last year, Ms Thorpe was forced to remove her name from a call by anti-Voice Coalition senators calling for the establishment of an inquiry into Indigenous bodies. She blamed the incident on an administrative error, but confirmed her issues with some existing bodies to NITV. “Native title has hurt our people,” she said.

” It also [says]… that our sovereignty is just a spiritual notion. That’s why mining companies have been allowed to ride roughshod over this country and its Traditional Owners.”

History-making politician makes waves again

First elected to Victorian parliament at a byelection in 2017, Thorpe made history as that state’s first Indigenous MP. Although she was beaten at the subsequent 2018 election, she was preselected for a federal senate seat by the Greens, and won election in 2020. That made her the first Indigenous senator from Victoria in the country’s history. Greens Leader Adam Bandt expressed his regret following Senator Thorpe’s resignation from the party, saying he believed her views were aligned with the party. “Our party position is crystal clear, sovereignty was never ceded,” he told NITV. “We need First Nations justice: that means truth and treaty as well.

“I certainly felt that Senator Thorpe would have been able to advance that position from within the Greens… she’s obviously come to a different decision.”