Voice to parliament yes and no campaigns target migrant communities
Mundine, who brought together several groups to create the Recognize A Better Way body, supports symbolic constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians but opposes the Voice advisory body as the vehicle. He proposed the recognition of First Nations and migrant Australians in the preamble to the constitution, an approach rejected by indigenous leaders during the Uluru consultation process.
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Mundine argued that a constitutional recognition that one group of Australians, being First Nations people, “praised” should be accompanied by recognition of migrants.
“I think we have to be respectful of all the people who came to this country. Some risked their lives to come here from war-torn countries and oppressive regimes, and they work hard and help build this nation. We have to praise it,” he said.
Mundine – a former Labor party president who 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 idea that Australia has a deep-seated race. problem.
“They are very much about coming to Australia and making it a better place. They don’t like this idea that they have come to a racist place. They believe this place has helped them build a better life for their children and grandchildren,” he said.
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“They are a different kettle of fish than elites and corporations,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spent several nights at the Australian Open in corporate boxes.
Explaining how the Vote could tap into what he said was migrants’ distaste for progressive politics, Mundine pointed to large swings against Victorian Labor at the last state election in northern and western suburbs with large migrant populations and claimed polling stations in Sydney’s west showed strong opposition to the Voice. .
Carli dismissed the proposal to recognize migrants in the constitution as a red herring designed to distract voters. He was not completely against the idea, but argued that it was not a proposal that any trek leader had ever raised with him.
“Playing off groups against each other is a cool tactic, especially marginalized groups,” he said.
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The Resolve Political Monitor survey conducted over December and January found that a higher proportion of non-Anglo Australians (63 per cent) supported the Voice than compared to Anglo Australians (60 per cent).
John Scales of JWS Research, a pollster who conducted research for the Voice last year, said some new Australians have different attitudes to non-European Australians on Indigenous issues.
“They don’t carry that long-term debt association associated with the settlement of Australia by white European settlers,” he said. “And they come with their own problems. Some migrants also struggle to fit into Australian society and achieve equality.”
