Australia: Aboriginal leader receives threats ahead of Indigenous referendum

Just days before Australia’s referendum on whether to constitutionally recognise its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, an Indigenous senator was the victim of threats and racial slurs in a video posted on social media.

On October 14, Australians will be asked to vote on whether they favour changing the constitution to include a “Voice to Parliament,” an Indigenous committee that would advise parliament on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

A man in a balaclava who claimed to be a member of a neo-Nazi gang was seen burning the Aboriginal flag, giving the Nazi salute, and threatening Senator Lidia Thorpe in an internet video.

“Where is my support? Where is my protection in this country?” Thorpe asked during a news conference in Melbourne.

“I’m not hiding for the next nine days. You are going to hear from me. I’m not scared,” she said.

Since then, the video has been removed. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) declared that it was looking into the situation.

Racist threats against Aboriginal people, who make up roughly 3.8% of the population, have increased in the run-up to the vote as a result of misunderstandings and anxiety regarding the “Yes” campaign.

Thorpe is advocating for a “No” vote and urging the government and Indigenous people to first sign a treaty comparable to those in Canada and New Zealand.

The “Yes” campaigners for the Voice referendum claim that the proposal unites the country and gives the 65,000-year-old Aboriginal culture the much-needed recognition it needs, while the “No” campaigners contend that it gives the Indigenous body too many powers or that it will have no real impact.

As soon as Thorpe contacted him, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he answered and also spoke with the police.

“I’ve seen the video that was referred to that is threatening towards Senator Thorpe and towards the government, and the sort of Nazi rhetoric and statements that are in that video have no place in the discourse in Australian political life,” Albanese said, when asked about the matter at a news conference later in the day.

Most socioeconomic indices of Aboriginal people fall below national norms, and they experience disproportionately high rates of suicide, spousal abuse, and incarceration. Compared to non-Indigenous people, their life expectancy is around eight years lower.

(With agency inputs)