Blak Sovereign Movement blasts Yes and No camps, dismisses Voice as ‘cheap window dressing’

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Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has sent out an unofficial referendum pamphlet on behalf of the Blak Sovereign Movement calling the proposed Voice to parliament “cheap window dressing” that will not advance truth-telling about Australia’s colonial past or Indigenous self-determination.

The movement delivered a withering critique of both the Yes and No campaigns, whose official referendum pamphlets were released on Tuesday by the Australian Electoral Commission, saying people “are hurting as a result of being coerced by the Yes campaign, or are afraid to vote No due to the racism of the conservative No campaign”.

Independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe with a group of anti-Voice Indigenous activists at Parliament House.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The movement’s own pamphlet comes as support for the proposed constitutional change fell below 50 per cent in the most recent Resolve Political Monitor and amid fears Thorpe’s progressive No campaign could further damage the case for change.

Thorpe is one of the self-styled leaders of the progressive No case but did not contribute to the official No pamphlet, claiming earlier this month to have been excluded by the Coalition.

The Blak Sovereign Movement’s document – which, unlike the Yes and No pamphlets, won’t be sent to Australian households ahead of the national vote later this year – said the Voice would be a powerless advisory body and that recognition of sovereignty and truth-telling were the key to real change.

“Something that pretends to be a great change, but provides none, is not a step in the right direction,” it said.

Despite its denunciation of the Voice, the document said the movement did not have the time nor the resources to campaign against the proposal.

The pamphlet explicitly rejected arguments from the Yes campaign that a Voice would ensure Indigenous Australians would have a better quality of life, bring Australia together, save money and deliver practical advice to government.

It also rejected some conservative No campaign claims, including that the Voice would open the door for activists to be more involved in Indigenous affairs and that there were no details about the proposal – it argues “they are details but without substance”.

But it agreed with conservatives that the Voice would be costly and bureaucratic, that it would not help Indigenous Australians and that there were better ways forward.

“For decades, we have been calling for land rights, treaty, truth-telling and an end to the colonial violence inflicted on our people. The decades of resistance, the protests, the time, the suffering, the pain were not, are not, and will never be in pursuit of a powerless advisory body or constitutional recognition,” the pamphlet said.

“After 230 years of invading and illegally occupying our land, the best the colonial government can offer us is a token advisory body and assimilation into their Constitution. It is an insult to our ancestors.”

The document states the Voice proposal would require Indigenous Australians to be complicit “in our own colonisation” and require them to cede sovereignty – a claim repeatedly made by Thorpe.

Legal experts and Voice advocates Megan Davis and Noel Pearson have rejected the claim that Indigenous sovereignty would be ceded by the creation of the advisory body.

Thorpe’s office said the senator was unavailable to comment but confirmed there were no plans to hold campaign events as the conservative No campaign has been doing.

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