Migrants will be told to vote yes for an Indigenous Voice at religious services, in ethnic newspapers and through non-English radio stations, while No campaigners will tell migrants to reject the notion that Australia is a racist nation.
The No campaign’s Indigenous leader Warren Mundine told this masthead ethnic communities would be receptive to the argument that the Voice was an elitist project that talked down the country, as he argues that migrants should also be recognised in the constitution.
Warren Mundine.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Signalling a divisive fight to win the votes of new Australians, ethnic community leader Carlo Carli suggested Mundine’s pitch was a red herring designed to pit immigrants against Indigenous Australians.
Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), tied to many hundreds of local community groups, has planned a major Voice drive alongside a key referendum group led by Uluru Statement co-author Megan Davis to mobilise thousands of migrant leaders to spruik the Voice through trusted local channels.
“Our reach in terms of different language groups is pretty phenomenal,” the federation’s chair, Carli, told this masthead.
Carli explained that about 800 migrant leaders attended FECCA’s conference last year, at which a physical copy of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – a landmark Indigenous community consensus position that called for a Voice – was on display. It attracted queues of migrant leaders who wanted to be photographed alongside it, he said.
“There was no dissent. Everyone was incredibly supportive of the case, particularly newer migrant communities,” Carli, a former Victorian Labor MP, said. “Many of the groups have come out in favour of the Voice and many more will do so in coming months.”
“A lot of our constituents come from communities that have had trauma and been dispossessed, that have sought refuge. They are natural allies to our First Nations people because they’ve got empathy, and once they get involved in Australian affairs they want to progress things.”
Mundine, who has brought together several groups to create the Recognise A Better Way body, supports a symbolic constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians but opposes the Voice advisory body as the vehicle. He has proposed the recognition of First Nations and migrant Australians in the preamble of the constitution, an approach rejected by Indigenous leaders during the Uluru consultation process.
Mundine argued a constitutional recognition that “praised” one group of Australians, being First Nations people, should be accompanied by recognition of migrants.
“I think we need to be respectful to all the people who’ve come to this country. Some risked their lives to get here from war-torn countries and oppressive regimes, and they work hard and help build this nation. We should praise that,” he said.
Mundine – a former president of the Labor Party who has drifted to the conservative side of politics and ran as a Liberal candidate at the 2019 election – said the No campaign’s research showed migrant communities were hostile to the notion that Australia had a deep-seated racial problem.
“They are very much about coming to Australia and making it a better place. They don’t like this idea they have come to a racist place. They believe this place has helped them build a better life for their kids and grandkids,” he said.
“They are a different kettle of fish to elites and corporates,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had spent multiple nights at the Australian Open in corporate boxes.
Explaining how the Voice could harness what he said was migrants’ aversion to progressive politics, Mundine referenced big swings against Victorian Labor at the last state election in northern and western suburbs with large migrants populations and claimed polling in western Sydney demonstrated strong opposition to the Voice.
Carli dismissed the proposal to recognise migrants in the constitution as a red herring designed to distract voters. He did not entirely oppose the idea but argued it was not a proposal that any migrant leader had ever raised with him.
“Playing groups off against each other is a pretty old tactic, particularly marginalised groups,” he said.
The Resolve Political Monitor survey conducted over December and January found a higher proportion of non-Anglo Australians (63 per cent) supported the Voice than compared to Anglo-Australians (60 per cent). It showed 66 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders supported the proposal.
JWS Research’s John Scales, a pollster who conducted research on the Voice last year, said some new Australians had different attitudes to non-European Australians on Indigenous affairs.
“They don’t carry that long-term guilt association related to the inhabitation of Australia by white European settlers,” he said. “And they come with their own issues. Some migrants are also struggling to fit into Australian society and gain equality.”
“Some may ask, why do some get special treatment? We all need to be looked after.”
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