Discuss referendum with care and respect

A West Gippsland communications specialist is urging community members to show care and respect when discussing The Voice to Parliament referendum.
While declaring her support for the "yes" campaign, Leah Mether said the debate needed to occur with "real care, consideration and respect because we are talking about people."
"We have lost the ability to disagree. We should be able to disagree with respect.
"When you engage in discussions, do it with care and respect because this involves vulnerable people," she said.
Ms Mether said there had been an element of deliberate fear mongering and misinformation in debate about the referendum.
"Fear mongering is effective, we've seen it with Trump and the marriage equality debate.
"Misinformation, deliberately complex and misleading communication, and fear mongering is everywhere.
"Yes the fear mongering is effective but it's the wrong thing to do.
"It has polarised it to 'us and them.' But we are talking about real people here," she said.
Ms Mether said she understood there was fear the gap was not closing for First Nations people.
"What we're doing now is not working to close the gap so we have to try something new. And making sure we listen more closely to Indigenous voices from across the country about how to address Indigenous issues through a Voice to Parliament is a good place to start."
"The referendum is only saying there has to be a Voice. If they try something they can still tweak it, but we can't scrap Indigenous representation to Parliament entirely," she said.
Ms Mether has thrown her support behind the Directors for the Voice initiative, joining more than 1600 business leaders from across Australia who will be voting yes.
She said while there was a strong "don't know, vote no" movement, she promoted a "not sure, learn more" approach.
"I have been very public in my views on lots of social justice issues so there's no surprise I am voting yes.
"I have always been values-led and passionate about social justice and Indigenous issues.
"I have listened to my Indigenous friends, clients, elders, and organisations I respect. I have read widely and listened to legal experts.
"I'm voting Yes for many reasons but particularly because I want to live in a country that recognises 65,000 years of Indigenous culture in our constitution. How incredible is it that here in Australia we have the oldest continuous living culture in the world?
"I'm also voting yes because I support a Voice to Parliament, something Indigenous people asked for so eloquently in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Ms Mether said the Voice was "a small and simple ask - it is not big, scary, or complicated at all."
"It's simply asking that a Voice be enshrined in the constitution so that Indigenous representation to parliament on issues impacting Indigenous people can't be disbanded every time we change governments. Although governments can still change it, they can't get rid of it entirely," she said.