We have a responsibility to fight the falsehoods of the No campaign

Jews understand what it is like to be a victim of group defamation. We need to speak up for Indigenous people and fight for The Voice, writes ROBERT LEHRER.

The establishment of a Jewish voice for The Voice shows that the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament are resonant for many Jews.

But there is a small group in the Jewish community, and a larger group in the wider community, who have been deceived by the messaging of the No campaign.

It is a campaign largely sponsored by the Liberal and National parties and their associates, some of whom are on the extreme fringes of the political spectrum. That message is that Indigenous Australians are only entitled to second-rate justice, if any justice at all.

These opponents are promoting a fictitious notion that if Indigenous peoples win a consultative Voice to the Parliament about the future of their people, they are getting a special privilege that is somehow racially divisive.

This is a falsehood designed to create fear. All major constitutional law experts agree that The Voice does not impinge on the sovereignty of parliament or the democratic process. It does not create differences between Australians of different racial backgrounds. It simply provides for a consultative body on Indigenous issues.

Indigenous peoples do have a special place in this country as the First Peoples with a distinctive history. They have had their land taken from them without consent or compensation, many of their children stolen from them, their way of life upended. Today, many suffer the worst forms of social disadvantage.

There is privilege in this country, and it is not in the hands of Indigenous Australians. How many Indigenous Australians are on the annual rich lists? How many occupy positions on the benches of our top courts, are CEOs of ASX 200 companies, students in the elite faculties of our top universities or elite private schools? How many occupy senior government or corporate appointments or sit in our parliaments or occupy the senior ministries or highest echelons of the public service or wave their hand to the people from Vice Regal limousines?