Vote Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has been arrested and says a vote in parliament is just the first ‘door’ to a treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The Aboriginal lawyer was recorded telling a ‘truth forum’ that a treaty could only be negotiated after a vote was enshrined in the constitution.
No-vote advocates say Pearson’s statement further contradicts Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s claim that a treaty would not be an inevitable consequence of a vote.
“So those of us who have been late with this strategy need to wake up,” Mr Pearson told an audience at the Garma festival in August 2018.
“The Treaty door is the second door. The first door is constitutional anchoring.’
Earlier in his speech, Mr. Pearson had said, “We must have a basis for negotiations.”
“But before we can do that, we can’t just get started. We need a constitutional vote for the First Nations.
A position from which we can never change. A position from which we can negotiate with all the moral and historical power we possess through our possession of this land for more than 60,000 millennia.”
Another video filmed the Cape York leader sending a similar message in September 2018 when he gave the Hal Wootten Lecture at the invitation of the University of NSW Law Department.
“The first condition for a treaty is that we have a voice,” Pearson said.
“And the vote to negotiate such a treaty. It’s common sense. We talked about it in the dialogues chaired by Professor (Megan) Davis and Pat Anderson in 2016.”
Vote Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has been arrested and says a vote in parliament is just the first ‘door’ to a treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The Yes campaign for the Voice has found a public figure in the form of legendary singer John Farnham as he desperately tries to win over voters.
Farnham provided his iconic song You’re The Voice for an official campaign advertisement, which was well received by the Yes camp and its supporters.
But One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who posted the Pearson videos on social media, said his words proved that “the risky and divisive vote of Albanians is all about the Treaty.”
“As you can see, the Albanian is sneaky when he says Voice has nothing to do with a treaty,” she wrote.
The Yes campaign was rocked on Monday by a resurfaced video in which Professor Davis stated that the Uluru statement from the heart is about ‘Voice first, Treaty second’.
In a speech she gave in June 2018, Professor Davis also said that “treaties are about reparations” and that “the Treaty is not an end, but a beginning.”
Professor Davis’ video appeared just days after it was revealed. Ms Anderson said the advisory body would ‘share power with parliament’ following a successful ‘yes’ vote.
“Uluru was a reformation of the series,” Professor Davis said in the speech. ‘First the vote to Parliament, then the Treaty.’
‘Treaties are legal texts. Disputes over interpretation will arise. The treaties are about reparations for past injustices and they are about land and resources.’
The Uluru Declaration from the Heart was issued in May 2017, following two years of consultations with indigenous communities across the country.
It forms the basis for the upcoming referendum to be held on October 14 which, if passed, would enshrine an Indigenous vote in the Australian Constitution.
Proponents of no voting rights say Pearson’s statement further contradicts Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s claim that a treaty would not be an inevitable consequence of a ballot.
This would mean that an advisory body of First Nations people should be consulted by federal politicians on matters affecting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Mr Albanese has consistently said the referendum – which polls have indicated will fail – is just about a vote, not a treaty or reparations.
But Albanese was elected after campaigning under the slogan ‘Vote, Treaty, Truth’ and he even pledged to ‘fully implement’ the Uluru Declaration from the heart in his first speech after taking power.
Professor Davis said in her speech that getting a treaty ‘has always been the main aspiration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander movement’.
“The treaty is a fundamental constitutional agreement between First Nations and the state and involves a redistribution of political power.”
She said a treaty would create “binding frameworks for future agreements and dispute resolution,” but that “there will be disputes over interpretation.”