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Key opponents of the Indigenous Voice have switched sides in the final weeks of the referendum to back the Yes case after rising fears that a No victory would align them with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton or One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.<\/p>\n
The moves reveal the concerns among \u201cprogressive No\u201d activists who initially rejected the Voice in favour of stronger action \u2013 such as a treaty first \u2013 but have moved away from the hardline stance taken by Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe.<\/p>\n
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Senator Lidia Thorpe spoke to huge crowds at the Treaty Before Voice Invasion Day rally on January 26. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alexi J Rosenfeld<\/cite><\/p>\n But Thorpe said the Blak Sovereignty movement, which she leads, was \u201cgrowing exponentially\u201d and would continue to oppose the Voice, saying she would not switch sides despite calls from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for her support.<\/p>\n With early voting opening on Monday, the Yes campaign is trying to win back voters who have been swayed by conservative critics who say the Voice goes too far and \u201cprogressive No\u201d leaders such as Thorpe who see the Voice as a retreat on sovereignty and treaty.<\/p>\n Thorpe\u2019s case has lost ground, however, among some Indigenous people who have shifted to the Yes side as polling day draws closer.<\/p>\n Melbourne activist Tarneen Onus Browne said they were a \u201chard No\u201d and actively campaigned against the Voice until changing their mind when they saw the risk of a No victory.<\/p>\n Tarneen Onus Browne was a hard no, but has changed her position after watching the rise of far-right extremists opposed to the Voice. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Luis Enrique Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cIt is dangerous to those of us in Indigenous communities because of the racism and discrimination it amps up, and I hope to never see another community group be put in danger of right-wing conservatives in a national vote,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe racist No campaign is dangerous in so many ways and it has made it okay for neo-Nazis to go out onto the streets of Melbourne \u2013 and it\u2019s important for this country to send a message to them by writing Yes in the upcoming referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n Onus Browne is a community organiser for Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance and made headlines five years ago for telling an Invasion Day rally they hoped Australia would \u201cburn to the ground\u201d \u2013 a remark they said was about the need for total change to the political system.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree with much of what the progressive No represents, not the racist No \u2013 they are two very different campaigns,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Meriki Onus, from the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance, at a press conference in June 2020 with Tarneen Onus Browne. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n Anti-Voice campaigners such as Nyunggai Warren Mundine have rejected claims their campaign appeals to racism in the community after Yes leader Marcia Langton said earlier this month the No case used racist tactics.<\/p>\n Meriki Onus, a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman and an organiser for the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, said a key factor for her was the way the First Peoples\u2019 Assembly of Victoria showed how a federal body could work.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree with much of what the No position is, however, I\u2019m leaning towards voting Yes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen an example in Australia where a body similar to the Voice to parliament already functions, and I think that they do really good work and there\u2019s amazing opportunity there. So I would be leaning towards a Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n The Victorian assembly has 32 members who are elected by Indigenous people to represent their communities, with voters choosing representatives from five regions across the state. Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney joined the assembly members in Melbourne on Thursday morning to back the Voice.<\/p>\n Onus, who is Thorpe\u2019s younger sister, said she agreed with many of the Victorian senator\u2019s views but had her own personal views about the \u201cyes or no\u201d choice at the referendum.<\/p>\n She said she was not concerned at the claim that setting up the Voice would mean ceding sovereignty and her view was not based on any concerns about Dutton or Hanson.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be put in the same camp as those two \u2013 my politics are very different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Co-founders of UP: Uprising of the People, Mililma May (right) and Sharna Alley.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Rhett Wyman <\/cite><\/p>\n Yes campaigners saw Victoria as a stronghold for their cause until a slide in the opinion polls showed the state was slipping toward the No side, making every vote count and increasing the importance of voters once swayed by Thorpe\u2019s arguments against the change.<\/p>\n In Darwin, chief executive of Uprising of the People, Mililma May said she changed her mind to become an \u201cactive educator\u201d on the Yes side of the Voice debate because she was concerned about the way a No victory would be seen in the community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of a No vote in the Northern Territory scared me in that it could mean a majority of Australians do not care about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. And that fundamentally felt wrong to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n May, whose Darwin-based group acts for Indigenous young people in detention, said she had taken a No position at first.<\/p>\n \u201cI was scared that my sovereignty would be impacted. And I was wary of trusting the government after Australia\u2019s history,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMoving beyond those fears, I realised that sovereignty can\u2019t be impacted by voting Yes. And I think it\u2019s healthy to have a level of mistrust of the government, but in a way that can make the government accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n While the comments are at odds with Thorpe\u2019s call to Indigenous Australians to reject the Voice, May made no criticism of the Victorian senator.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that Lidia and I have different understandings of what is going to work for our people, and I think that\u2019s valid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Thorpe said the Blak Sovereignty movement had grown on social media and she was not changing her position on the Voice.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going Yes, I\u2019m not betraying the movement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Asked whether the arguments of No campaigners Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had had more impact on voters than her own comments, Thorpe said.<\/p>\n \u201cWell if that is true the PM wouldn\u2019t be calling me as often as he does, if I didn\u2019t have any influence over the decision being made in this country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants me to support the Yes campaign because it\u2019s embarrassing the government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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