Greens’ Lidia Thorpe replacement Dorinda Cox calls on Anthony Albanese to progress treaty alongside Voice to Parliament

The Greens’ replacement for Lidiai Thorpe has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to complement the Voice to Parliament referendum with a formal treaty.

Western Australian Senator Dorinda Cox was appointed as the party’s new First Nations spokesperson on Monday after Lidia Thorpe’s shock resignation on February 6.

Senator Thorpe parted from the Greens to advocate for a black sovereignty movement and push for a First Nations treaty as she denounced the Voice in the process.

Senator Cox reiterated the Greens would “support a yes campaign in the upcoming referendum” but revealed the party would join her predecessor in the pursuit of a treaty.

She also called on Mr Albanese to mobilise on treaty-making.

“We want to make sure the Labor Government are progressing all of those elements (in the Uluru Statement from the Heart),” Senator Cox told Sky News Australia on Thursday.

“We are looking at this not just through a Voice prism, it’s important to have a Voice and the establishment of the Voice will be complementary to treaty-making.”

The Yamatji-Noongar woman said the Greens would not butt heads with Senator Thorpe in pursuing a treaty as their outcomes were the same “across party lines”.

She said the now-independent Senator’s black sovereignty movement and its aim will complement goals set out by the Greens.

“Getting to that destination and the way we get to that destination is perhaps different,” she said.

As the referendum nears, Senator Cox said Australians wanted to see the outcomes and the practical application of the Voice.

“Shutting that down is not productive,” she said.

“As we continue to see information being relayed particularly by the Labor Government in relation to what the model would look like, I would personally like to see that it be an elected body not a selected body.”

Australians are set to vote on the Voice to Parliament referendum later this year as Ms Cox said it was finally time for “intergenerational trauma to be addressed”.

“For 230 years we’ve been waiting for this conversation to happen, we have been waiting to be recognised in the constitution,” she said.