What Linda Thorpe’s Gammin T-shirt means

Lidia Thorpe has been scolded for wearing a T-shirt into Parliament brandishing an Indigenous slogan in order to make a point about the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament. 

As the senate heard the final reading of Anthony Albanese’s Constitutional Alteration Bill – which will pave the way for the referendum later this year – the Indigenous senator wore a white shirt with the word ‘Gammin’ printed across the front.

The word is Indigenous slang for ‘fake’.  

‘That’s what I think a powerless Voice is to this place. Gammin. Fake, pretend, a joke,’ she said in a far-reaching statement criticising the King, white supremacy and her colleagues.

Ms Thorpe said she has ‘infiltrated’ parliament with a plan to ‘rattle the cages to destroy white supremacy represented in this place’. 

She will vote ‘No’ in protest of the ‘token advisory’ body the Government has proposed, telling the Senate: ‘happy assimilation day everybody.’

Up until this point, Ms Thorpe had publicly considered abstaining from the vote, and urged the government to make changes to ensure real change. 

Primarily, she is campaigning for a treaty and does not want the focus to be on the constitution, which she described as an ‘illegal document’.

‘It’s illegal,’ she said several times. ‘The occupation was illegal. You’re following the King. The King? The King’s position is to wipe us out.

‘We’re a problem, we’re certainly a problem to this mob,’ she said, looking around the chamber in the Senate. ‘We’re just a problem that needs to be fixed all the time.’ 

In a fiery speech during the final reading of the Constitutional Alteration Bill on Monday, Ms Thorpe said she was ‘ashamed’ of the push for a Voice to Parliament.

‘Poor little black fellas are begging for a seat at the table and all we get is to become advisors. No power,’ she said.

‘We are begging like paupers to go into a white, racist, colonial constitution that was set up to deny everything that we are. To destroy everything as quickly as they could… to dispossess us.

‘There is not one law in this country that has ever been good for us, not one. And now we’re being asked to accept a powerless voice.’ 

Ms Thorpe went on to slam Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has campaigned for Constitutional recognition since before he was elected

Ms Thorpe will vote ‘No’ in protest of the ‘token advisory’ body the Government has proposed, telling the Senate: ‘happy assimilation day everybody.’

Ms Thorpe went on to slam Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has campaigned for Constitutional recognition since before he was elected. 

Mr Albanese has identified the Voice to Parliament as a hallmark of his leadership, vowing from election night to bring a referendum to the people of Australia.

Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum later in the year, likely October.

But Ms Thorpe said ‘Albo has no guts’ and ‘does not have the courage to come out and say he wants a treaty’. 

‘I hope the Voice is going to tell Parliament they’ve got to stop killing our people, they’ve got to stop the suicides, assimilating us into their system.

‘You are completely Gammin, fake, not genuine. You wave your flag, wear your deadly black earrings and feel good about it.’   

The Senate has just voted on the bill, which passed with an absolute majority of 52-19. 

‘You are completely Gammin, fake, not genuine. You wave your flag, wear your deadly black earrings and feel good about it,’ Ms Thorpe said

In a fiery speech during the final reading of the Constitutional Alteration Bill on Monday, Ms Thorpe said she was ‘ashamed’ of the push for a Voice to Parliament

Lidia Thorpe slammed ‘white supremacy’ in parliament

Only those who vote ‘No’ are allowed to work on the official essay which will be contained in an official referendum pamphlet set to be sent to every Australian home at least two weeks before the vote.

The pamphlet will contain two essays up to 2,000 words long arguing the cases for and against the Voice to Parliament.

Labor’s message is that a vote ‘from the heart’ will give Indigenous Australians equal footing and opportunity to provide input on matters which directly impact their lives.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has long said it is a ‘modest’ request of the Australian public, noting he feels a personal responsibility to see his promise through to Indigenous communities who ‘have waited so long’.

The Voice to Parliament ‘will be a permanent body to make representations to the Australian Parliament and the Executive Government on legislation and policy of significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,’ the government says. 

‘It will further the self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by giving them a greater say on matters that affect them.’