A new campaign has been launched, aimed at raising greater public awareness within migrant communities about an upcoming referendum on local government.
The referendum would recognise local government in the Australian constitution.
Supporters argue the change is necessary to allow federal governments to provide funding directly to local councils without having to do so through state and territory governments.
But critics say any change to the constitution could end up weakening state governments and allow the federal government to take the credit for local projects for political purposes.
The referendum on local government was timed for September 14, to coincide with the date originally set for the federal election by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
But with her successor Kevin Rudd likely to pick a new date for the election, the referendum date could also be changed.
With voting compulsory, a number of migrant community organisations are anxious that many Australians from a non English speaking background may miss out on a chance to have their say in the local government referendum and simply vote in the federal election.
The organisations have therefore decided to work together on a new campaign to raise awareness about the need to vote in the referendum.
The campaign is being supported by the Australian Multicultural Foundation and community organisations from the Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese speaking communities.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Arab Council of Australia Randa Kattan says there is currently a general lack of awareness about the referendum and what it is all about.
"At this stage, it's all about conversations around coffee tables or around lunch or dinner tables, I guess. There hasn't been an enormous interest as such. But that's part of the campaign to raise awareness about the referendum that's coming up."
Ms Kattan says fact sheets have been prepared in Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin, Vietnamese, Farsi, Korean, Italian, Greek and Dari, to give migrant communities more information on the referendum proposal.
She says this includes all the key arguments in favour and against changing the constitution to recognise local government.
The fact sheets will be distributed through community organisations and published in community newspapers.
The federal government has allocated the "yes" case about $10 million for its campaign and the "no" case $500,000 dollars.
It has argued the funding discrepancy between the two campaigns is justified because it reflects the overwhelming support for the referendum plan when it was voted on in the House of Representatives.
Only two lower house MPs voted against the change.
However the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Multicultural Foundation Hass Dellal believes it is important to ensure that all voters have access to adequate information from both sides of the debate.
He says the information that is sent out in community languages as part of the awareness campaign will reflect that.
"Many of our communities really don't understand or are aware of what is involved, particularly around matters relating to the Australian constitution and I think this is something that highlights and creates a bit of an awareness around that."
History shows referendums fail if they do not have bipartisan support.
For a referendum to succeed, it needs the support of a majority of Australian voters overall, and also a majority of voters in at least four of the six states.
On this occasion, two state Premiers- New South Wales' Barry O'Farrell and Queensland's Campbell Newman have spoken out against the plan, saying they fear it could end up weakening state governments.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott believes the government pushed ahead with the referendum without proper public consultation and he has urged voters not to back the change unless they understand it.
The federal government has argued that the change won't undermine state governments because the states will retain the power to sack local councils or amalgamate them.
It says it will merely guarantee the right of federal governments to provide funding directly to local councils for important infrastructure projects, like roads, libraries and swimming pools.
The Chinese Community Council of Australia concedes the referendum on local government is likely to fail because of a lack of enthusiastic bipartisan support for it.
However the council's National President Tony Pun says he believes an awareness campaign is critical to ensure that migrant communities have all the information they need to make an informed choice.
"I think it's best to present it to the publicand if they say 'yes', they say 'yes', and 'no' means 'no'. It's the same thing with the monarchy or the republican debate. It's been going for a long time. It got tested and it failed. It doesn't mean that it won't come up again! I think that's true democracy. This whole exercise is giving people a chance to exercise their democratic right and that's far more important in a way than what the issue is."
That is a view shared by a Vietnamese-Australian Buddhist Abbot who is lending his support to the awareness campaign.
Venerable Thich Phuoc Tan is the Abbot of Quang Minh Temple in the western Melbourne suburb of Braybrook.
He believes the campaign is a good opportunity to promote greater awareness about the Australian constitution more generally and how difficult it is too change it.
"I think it's good if they're understanding the whole process. Even myself, before joining this campaign, I didn't fully understand the whole process. If they understand the full process, they can see that when a motion is moved and when the constitution in Australia is changed, it takes a lot of effort and support from the majority. So even if the constitution is not changed, people will be understanding the process and that's the whole thing."
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