What Do Ethnic Communities Think of The Voice?

Melbournians enjoy the Australia Day Parade in Swanston St Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 26, 2017. Chris Hopkins/Getty Images

Commentary

As we enter the final stretch of the campaign for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s proposed “Voice” referendum, many newer Australians are only now beginning to pay attention.

I recently had conversations with several leaders of different ethnic communities. They tell me that the priority of their community members is to work hard and make a decent living so that their families can get ahead.

Many new immigrants work multiple jobs. Constitutional referendums just aren’t a priority.

People who’ve recently come to this country want to see everyone thrive including Indigenous Australians, but they are naturally sceptical of vague promises from the elites.

The Australian Jewish Association, by far the largest Jewish organisation in the country, as measured by social media following and community engagement, has experienced an outpouring of opposition to The Voice.

In fact, we’ve received more feedback on this issue than any other since I started working there.

Here’s why I am confident minorities will overwhelmingly reject this worrying racial division.

Migrant Communities Have Experience With Race Politics

Members of migrant communities are more likely to be respectful of traditional values.

From the perspective of religious principles, it is a foundational belief that all people are created in the image of God.

This is a message of equality and teaches us that all people should be treated equally.

This message is integral to Judaism, Christianity, and other traditions. The Reverend Martin Luther King, perhaps the most prominent advocate for civil rights, famously spoke of his dream that his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

It’s wise to be guided by history and learn from prior experience. The Jewish Community in Australia dates from the First Fleet but the majority came after World War II. They fled places that practiced racial division.

Many Australian Jews left South Africa where apartheid and racial privilege were entrenched. Others hail from the Soviet Union where identity cards were stamped with one’s ethnicity by communist authorities, which led to severe persecution of Jews.

Chinese-born Australians are familiar with communist overreach and aware of the danger of Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-style monitoring and division.

Yet freedom-loving countries are not immune to the dangers of race division.

In the United States, Ivy League universities long maintained quotas on Jewish students. Asian students suffer the same inequity as Harvard and other universities discriminated based on race under the guise of “affirmative action” until it was struck down by the Supreme Court.

We must fight to keep this vile discrimination from Australia.

Whose Voice Does It Really Represent?

Aboriginal leaders who’ve addressed the Australian Jewish Association, like Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine tell us that this proposed Voice won’t be their voice.

So, whose voice will it be?

The Greens, the Teals, and an array of wealthy, white, inner-city elites are pushing The Voice the loudest.

A band of Yes campaign activists knocked on my door last week. It was the least diverse group I’ve seen in a while.

But then who else has time to be knocking on doors at 1 p.m. on a weekday when everyone else is at work?

But there’s a more sinister group that The Voice will amplify.

It will be The Voice of radical left-wing inner-city activists.

The Jewish community has experience with these extremists because their hatred for Australia is often only matched by their hatred for Israel.

Many joined a racist boycott of the Sydney Festival last year over the participation of an act connected to the Jewish State. Imagine the disaster when The Voice starts issuing advice on Australia’s foreign policy.

Supporters hold merchandise in support of the vote during a Yes 23 community event in support of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, in Sydney, Australia, on July 2, 2023. AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

When the Australian Jewish Association raised questions about The Voice, we were told by an Aboriginal elder Aunty to “Go back to Jerusalem.”

This is a harbinger of what would come if The Voice were to be successful.

Migrant communities understand that if Jews, who’ve been here since the First Fleet are being told to go back where they came from, then newer migrant communities will be the first in the firing line.

Citizens’ rights shouldn’t be determined by how long ago their ancestors arrived.

We Don’t Need to Alter the Constitution to Be a Better Country

Does opposing The Voice mean opposing assistance to Aboriginal people?

Of course not.

In the 1970s, Fred Hollows began visiting outback communities and performing low-cost eye surgery.

He visited 460 Aboriginal communities, examined 62,000 people, treated 27,000 for trachoma, and carried out 1,000 operations.

Fred Hollows didn’t need a government Voice to act. He took the initiative, got in his 4-wheel drive, and started driving. The Hollows model is greatly preferable to the bloated bureaucracy of a voice.

Racial segregation isn’t the answer. If someone needs help, we should help them no matter the colour of their skin. Poverty and suffering are colour-blind.

I am confident that on Oct. 14, Australians will reject the divisive Voice being pushed by Anthony Albanese and the elites.

I am equally confident that Australia’s diverse ethnic communities will say NO to The Voice and the intolerance it represents.

Let’s build a better, more inclusive nation together, with no special race-based rights or privileges for anyone.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.