Jacqui Lambie has launched a blistering attack on the government in the wake of the failed referendum, claiming it has left First Nations people “on life support”.
More than half of Australia, including all six states, resoundingly voted against the proposal to enshrine an Indigenous advisory in the constitution on Saturday night.
The Tasmanian senator revealed she was not surprised by the defeat and lashed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for putting Indigenous communities on the backburner and not listening for calls for more support.
“My heart goes out to you, but there is always a losing team, As much as it kills me to say that there is going to be a lot of hurt out there,” she told the Today show.
“In the meantime, the last two years, basically the Labor Party has put Indigenous communities out there on life support … They’ve done nothing for two years.
“I don’t know why you can’t speak and chew gum at the same time. Some of us have been standing there, telling you the actions that need to be done in these Indigenous communities, and you weren’t listening because you had one focus, which was to get the Voice up, and you failed and we have no plan B.”
Indigenous leaders who campaigned for the Voice have asked for a week of silence for Australians to grieve and reflect on the outcome of the referendum.
But Senator Lambie said communities didn’t “have a week left”.
“We’ve been sitting there for two years on this. We need to get into those communities and make them better,” she said.
The latest count showed 61 per cent of the nation voted No and 39 per cent cast a Yes ballot. The No vote won out in 59 of the 78 seats held by Labor MPs. All but one of the seats held by the Coalition voted against the referendum.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles defended the decision to go to a referendum, denying it was the wrong thing to do given it was going to be a hard sell to Australians.
“We move forward now not through constitutional reform but looking at other ways in which we can act to close the gap,” he said.
When asked if Mr Albanese had the full support of the Labor caucus, Mr Marles responded “of course”.
Coalition senator and leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price criticised Mr Albanese for failing to read the room and “understand how the Australian people felt”.
“I think from the outset when he tried to bring in … Shaquille O’Neal, when he brought him into the picture, it seemed like a bit of a joke. Then when Qantas came on-board,” she told Sydney’s 2GB.
“The Prime Minister took on the elites and tried to make it a popularity contest and really was disconnected with the Australian people.”
Federal cabinet is expected to meet on Monday to discuss the next steps to address Indigenous disadvantage as politicians return to Canberra.
On Sunday, the government reaffirmed Labor’s commitment to advance reconciliation while pursuing treaty and truth-telling through a Makaratta commission.
Senator Price said she’d be willing to pick up the phone if Mr Albanese called her to discuss the way forward but insisted any movement towards the other components of the Uluru Statement from the Heart should be put on ice.
“I don’t think I’ll get a phone call like that, but absolutely, a bipartisan approach is probably the best way to move going forward,” she said.
“I don’t think that the Prime Minister should be heading toward Makaratta and treaty and truth-telling because that was sort of part of the package of the Voice and the Australian people said no, we don’t want that.”