The Greens party room agreed to support the Indigenous voice to parliament in a special meeting on Monday night, just hours after Senator Lidia Thorpe quit the party over her concerns regarding the consultation body.
“The Greens will support the Voice referendum … we want the referendum to succeed,” party leader Adam Bandt said in a statement on Monday evening.
“I will join my fellow Greens MPs in campaigning for Yes.”
It comes after the government’s working group on the referendum wrote personally to Bandt, urging him to support the voice and stressing that concerns about Indigenous sovereignty raised by Thorpe had been rebuffed by numerous constitutional experts.
The Greens met on Monday evening to finalise their position on the voice, after not reaching a consensus during its party room retreat last week. Guardian Australia had earlier been told by multiple Greens sources that the party was expected to support the voice.
The party room meeting resolved to support the necessary legislation to set up referendum and to campaign for Yes, with Bandt saying the Greens had received “guarantees on Sovereignty and funding to progress Treaty and Truth” from the Labor government.
The written statement did not list details of the funding promises Bandt says the government provided. Guardian Australia contacted Linda Burney, minister for Indigenous Australians, for comment.
The Greens agreement also includes a commitment to continue campaigning for the treaty and truth elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.
“The referendum will be an opportunity for the country to show its support for First Nations justice. A strong First Nations body would be a further step towards true self-determination and justice,” Bandt said.
“I don’t think a ‘No’ vote will get us closer to Treaty and Truth, but I respect that others in the First Nations community may have a different view on that.”
Thorpe, the Greens’ First Nations spokesperson until quitting the party, has criticised the voice and instead implored supporters to campaign for a treaty first.
The Greens decision all but guarantees the government will have enough votes to pass enabling legislation to set up the referendum.
Bandt told a press conference earlier on Monday that negotiations with government were continuing.
“I’m not going to pre-empt what my colleagues will decide. We still have our processes to work through,” Bandt said.
“We’re taking it seriously and we’re talking about it while parliament’s sitting.”
The decision came just hours after Thorpe announced she would quit the party in a decision linked to the voice.
“Greens MPs, members and supporters have told me they want to support the voice. This is at odds with the community of activists who are saying treaty before voice. This is the message delivered on the streets on Jan 26,” she said.
“This is the movement I was raised in – my elders marched for treaty. This is who I am.”
Thorpe had raised concerns about Indigenous sovereignty, if the voice referendum were to pass. Legal experts, including the government’s working group of leading constitutional lawyers, had rejected those concerns.
The legal expert group on Friday issued a statement, later released publicly, noting that “all members of the Expert Group agreed that the draft provision would not affect the sovereignty of any group or body.”
The working group wrote to Bandt on Thursday, giving him the same legal advice from the constitutional expert group, which includes former High Court justice Kenneth Hayne, Prof George Williams and Prof Anne Twomey.
The letter, obtained by Guardian Australia, notes that legal experts had “repeatedly made it clear that the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution does not impact sovereignty”.
It also noted the specific advice of the internal expert group.
“We look forward to confirmation of your support for this historic opportunity to advance reconciliation as set out in the Uluru statement from the heart,” the letter read.
On 25 January, the Greens announced that Thorpe had informed her colleagues that she may vote against the party’s position if the wider party room resolved to back the voice.
The Greens’ constitution allows members to go against the party position. The announcement was made the day before Australia Day and Invasion Day rallies, where Thorpe was a leading figure in advocating for treaty over voice, was widely seen as paving the way for the wider party room to support the voice.
At the time, Bandt said the Greens were “in active discussions with Labor to clarify further details on its approach to Truth, Treaty and Voice and First Nations justice policy”.
