Lighting up the dunes near Wanda Beach, Cronulla, NSW
ahead of the 14 October 2023 national referendum asking the question:
"A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
via @slsandpet, X/Twitter, 24 September 2023
The year 2020 began with media articles discussing the possibility of the recognition of First Nations people in the Australian Constitution and also a Voice to Parliament.
This was not new. People had been reading of these issues at their breakfast tables since at least the 1990s, many without realising that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had been seeking long-overdue recognition, a protection of their rights and equal treatment since the 1920s. All of which had culminated in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart - after which the Coalition Turnbull and Morrison federal governments repeatedly shoved the Statement into a corner of the room whenever questions were asked.
Although Advance Australia had registered as an official significant third party in February 2019 (with $2.4 million in seedmoney supplied by 16 donors).
The legal entity which underpins this organisation is Advance Aus Ltd formerly known as Freedom Aus Limited, registered in Queensland on 31 August 2018 and then moved to South Australia before landing in the ACT and now situated at Level 4, 15 Moore Street Canberra, CITY ACT 2601 since July 2023.
The original six directors have come and gone and now there are three:
LAURA JEAN BRADLEY;
MATTHEW PATRICK FRANCIS SHEAHAN - self-titled 'activist'; and
VICKI ANN DUNNE - former ACT Liberal Party MLA for Ginninderra electorate.
Advance Australia been running political issue 'talking points' and campaign advertising ever since, it wasn’t until 2021-22 when its xenophobia and prejudice began to be writ large that media coverage had increased as had awareness.
By the time 2022 came around with a firming of the political objective to hold a national referendum, it was obvious that Advance Australia had not just political backing from right-wing politicians and committed culture warriors like Tony Abbott, it had a number of financial backers with deep pockets. Pockets which appear to be financing its referendum “No” campaign against the inclusion of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament in the Australian Constitution.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 2023, p.26:
One of the calculated myths in the campaign against the Indigenous Voice is the argument that the referendum is a contest between elite insiders and ordinary folk because the case for change is powered by the wealthy and the well-connected.
The No campaign thrives on the "outsider" status it claims for itself as a movement that speaks for those without money or power, leading a cause that challenges the establishment by mobilising voters who lack the advantages enjoyed by others.
But the No campaign has an establishment of its own, full of people with money, influence and connections as well as harbourside views. It turns out that a transport company boss and a building materials millionaire are among the donors behind Advance Australia, although their names do not show up in the disclosures at the Australian Electoral Commission.
This is important when so little is known about the peak group behind the No campaign, Advance Australia, and the activist group it has set up, Fair Australia. These groups are secretive by design, but key facts about the tactics adopted by some of their members emerged in this masthead this week about the way they coached volunteers to use fear and doubt rather than facts to defeat the Voice at the October 14 referendum. It is not suggested that any of the donors identified below endorsed the controversial tactics revealed in the news reports.
Advance is a force to be watched in federal politics. If it succeeds in halting the Voice, it could unleash its conservative activism on other fronts even when critics accuse it of peddling falsehoods…..
Some Advance donors are known because they are named in the group's annual returns to the Australian Electoral Commission, or they lodge their own returns about their donations, and some have declared their support publicly, but that is not the case with all. Some of the payments are made through private companies, so we searched company records to find out who was behind the donations. This kind of disclosure is not readily available to the ordinary voter.
So who are its donors? The transport company chief is Brett Ralph, founder and managing director of Jet Couriers and a director of the Melbourne Storm football club as well as other sporting clubs. His company, JMR Management Consultancy Services, put $75,000 into Advance last financial year. He did not reply to an email about his donations.
The Sydney millionaire is Rodney O'Neil, a member of a family that made its money in building materials with companies like Australian Blue Metal and Hymix, which was run by his brother, Colin. Companies linked to Rodney O'Neil, with names like Nedigi and Sixmilebridge and based in Double Bay, contributed $85,000 to Advance last year. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Another donor is Sam Kennard, head of storage company Kennards, who has helped Advance over several years. His company, Siesta Holdings, gave $20,000 last year and $20,000 the year before. There was no response from Kennards about this donation.
These donors join some who have already been in the headlines for their help for Advance - such as former health company chief Marcus Blackmore, who donated $20,000 last year. Blackmore is a public supporter of the No campaign. One of the best-known donors to Advance is a former fund manager, Simon Fenwick, who has backed the conservative group for years. He and his wife, Elizabeth, donated $650,000 and $350,000 before the last election. The Fenwick family trust also donated $50,000 last year. Earlier this year, Fenwick promised to match donations worth up to $250,000 to Advance to help stop the Voice….. [my yellow highlighting]
Marcus Blackmore (Liberal & National parties donor) multi-millionaire Executive Director of Blackmores Ltd - $20,000 to Advance Australia
Brazil Farming Pty Ltd, principal multi-millionaire Franklyn Roger Brazil - $34,000 to Advance Australia
Louis Denton, Chief Operating Officer Devcos International - $75,000 to Advance Australia
Rayleen Guisti, Personal Assistant to Managing Director Garnaut Private Wealth - $37,500 to Advance Australia
Gabrielle Hull - $20,000 to Advance Australia
John Francis Hull (Liberal National Party of Qld donor) Retired UK director - $45,000 Advance to Australia
J M R Management Consultancy Services Pty Ltd, Managing Director Brett Ralph - $75,000 to Advance Australia
Nedigi Pty Limited (inaugural Advance Australia Donor 2018-19), Son of property magnate Denis O'Neil, Director Rodney O’Neil - $25,000 to Advance Australia
Sixmilebridge Pty Limited (inaugural Advance Australia Donor 2018-19), (Liberal Party, Liberal National Party Qld, National Party donor) Company Secretary Rodney O’Neil - $45,000 to Advance Australia
Telowar Pty Ltd (inaugural Advance Australia Donor 2018-19), Director Rodney O’Neil - $25,000 to Advance Australia
Andrew Abercrombie (Liberal Party donor) millionaire president of the Buy Now Pay Later company Humm - $20,020 to Advance Australia
Willimbury Pty Limited,(inaugural Advance Australia Donor 2018-19), Director Colin O’Neil - $25,000 to Advance Australia
Siesta Holdings Australia Pty Ltd (Liberal Democratic Party donor) Director Sam Kennard - $30,000 to Advance Australia
Karl Morris (Liberal Party Donor) CEO Ord Minnett Ltd & Chair Bravehearts Foundation Fund - $10,000 to Advance Australia
Silver River Investment Holdings Pty Ltd (Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party & Drew Pavlou Democratic Alliance donor) Director Simon Fenwick, Institute of Public Affairs board member - $50,000 to Advance Australia
Ian Tristram Chairman Trisco Foods Pty Ltd - $25,000 Advance Australia
The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 2023, p.1:
 |
The campaign to sink the Voice has instructed volunteers to use fear and doubt rather than facts to trump arguments used by the Yes camp.
In an online training session, the national campaigning chief for leading No activist group Advance, Chris Inglis, detailed the anti-Voice movement's core strategy of playing on voters' emotions.
Inglis instructed volunteers not to identify themselves upfront as No campaigners as they make hundreds of thousands of calls to persuadable voters, but instead to raise reports of financial compensation to Indigenous Australians if the Voice referendum were to succeed.
"When reason and emotion collide, emotion always wins. Always wins," he said as he displayed the same quote from US psychology professor Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain.
The No case is leading in several national polls ahead of the October 14 referendum. The latest RPM poll published yesterday showed support for the Indigenous Voice slumping to 43 per cent, with voter sentiment swinging against the constitution amendment in every state except Tasmania.
Inglis explained at the meeting on Monday, August 28, that the No camp's job was to make people suspicious of the Voice and its backers, while the Yes campaign continued to cite academic arguments and documents such as the Uluru Statement.
"This is the difference between facts and figures or the 'divisive Voice'," the long-time Liberal Party staffer said. "That feeling of uncertainty, of fear or doubt, that stays. That lasts for a very, very long time."
"I'm going to hammer in a lot of this emotive language."
"If you took everything that I had just said and turned it into one little thing, this is what you should write down and remember forever so you can tell your kids, tell your grandkids, tell your nephews and nieces - that people vote based on how they feel."
Advance runs the leading No campaign Fair Australia, which is aligned with the Coalition's Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Advance was started in 2018 as a conservative counterweight to GetUp and counts former prime minister Tony Abbott on its advisory board. It claims it has a 250,000-strong supporter base fighting "woke politicians and elitist activist groups ... taking Aussies for a ride with their radical agenda".
It is not suggested that either Price or Abbott endorses the coaching methods outlined in the training session run by Inglis.
Scripts used by Advance's 10,000-strong network of phone campaigners show how they are taught not to introduce themselves as calling from "the No campaign".
Instead, they are asked to sound as if they were concerned citizens associated with Fair Australia who "heard" the Voice will push for financial compensation for Aboriginal people. "It's been designed purely for soft voters. If we had put [No] in the opening line ... that in itself will scare people, right?" Inglis told volunteers.
"It's not from the 'No campaign'... Fair Australia's soft, it's calming."
The script states: "I've also heard that some of the people who helped design the Voice proposal are campaigning to abolish Australia Day and want to use the Voice to push for compensation and reparations through a treaty. All of these things raised a few questions in my mind and made me wonder if there was more to it all than meets the eye".
Inglis told supporters that phone canvassing - using a tool called CallHub employed by successful campaigns in Europe and the US - was integral to Advance's efforts.
If 250 people attend a phone calling session, Inglis said, they could reach 15,000 so-called "soft" voters yet to make a firm decision.
Inglis, a former ACT Liberal staffer, said in the briefing that he had worked on election campaigns for about 12 years.
His briefing outlined Advance's "three-wave plan" through Fair Australia to defeat the Voice.
The strategy was first deployed in autumn when No campaigners started raising awareness of the Voice as an issue of concern.
In the winter, the conservative activists began talking about the "Voice of division".
As referendum day looms, the Fair Australia campaign has begun discussing consequences of voting Yes and asking Australians to act by rejecting the proposal….
Read the full article online at:
OUR NEW AD IS LIVE!
— ulurustatement (@ulurustatement) September 3, 2023
You’re the Voice that will make history.
On 14 October, we know we all can stand together with the power to be powerful.
#HistoryIsCalling, so #VoteYes. Are you in? John Farnham is.
#UluruStatement #StayTrue2Uluru #YoureTheVoice #VoteYes pic.twitter.com/4ujYd9gk0M
On referendum day, Saturday 14 October 2023, voters will be asked to vote 'yes' or 'no' on a single question. The question on the ballot paper will be:
“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
 |
Along the Clarence River people are listening and deciding......
 |
| GRAFTON |
 |
| YAMBA “Mid-talk with Yaegl Elders in Maclean NSW, the referendum date was announced. An exciting moment to share with this community.” Thomas Mayo |
MACLEAN
IMAGES: X aka Twitter
The 'Yes' Voice campaign has tip-toed around the 'No' camp for months, unwilling to take the fight to them. But Uluru Dialogue co-chair @mdavisqlder isn't afraid - scorching statement about a "single No advocate" using her "privileged media platform to confuse mainstream media" pic.twitter.com/ThPPtqjVzi
— James Massola (@jamesmassola) August 9, 2023
Don't just sing along to this song - make it real.
It's time for an genuinely inclusive Australia
VOTE YES in the 2023 national referendum!
For months now the entire country has known the exact wording of the national referendum question and text of the constitutional amendment which will create a permanent advisory body composed of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander representatives of the First Nations peoples of Australia.
National Referendum Question
“A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
**********
Text of additional clause to be inserted in the Constitution if referendum question is answered by a double majority in the affirmative
“Chapter IX Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice
In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:
there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice;
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.”
**********
On the morning of Wednesday, 31 May 2023 the second and third reading of the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 Bill occurred in the House of Representatives and was passed by a majority of the House with just 25 members out of a total of 145 members dissenting.
The parliamentary dissenters in alphabetical order were:
Birrell, Sam. J. Boyce, C. E. Buchholz, Scott (Teller)
Chester, Darren J. Conaghan, Patrick J. Coulton, Mark M. (Teller)
Gillespie, David A. Goodenough, Ian R.
Hamilton, G. R. Hawke, Alexander G. Hogan, Kevin J.
Howarth, Luke R.
Joyce, Barnaby T. G.
Landry, Michelle L. Littleproud, David
McCormack, Michael F.
O'Brien, Llewellyn S.
Pasin, Anthony Pike, Henry J. Pitt, Keith J.
Wallace, Andrew B. Webster, A. E. Willcox, Andrew J.
Wilson, Richard. J. and
Young, Terry J.
A majority of these dissenters took it upon themselves to organise and conduct a “No” campaign against the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament once the referendum question had been approved by a majority in the House of Representatives.
Advance Aus Ltd formerly Freedom Aus Limited, Advance formerly known as Advance Australia & Fair Australia (both associated with Advance Aus Ltd), Recognise a Better Way, Whitestone Strategic Pty Ltd, Texas-based RJ Dunham & Co, Matthew Sheahan, Vicki Dunne, Laura Bradley, Simon Fenwick, Marcus Blackmore and former Liberal MP Tony Abbott are among the companies & persons which assist the dissenters in their apparent aim to sow doubt and division ahead of the referendum. [AFR, 10.04.23 & The Guardian, 13.07.23].
In this they appear to have had some measure of success.
According to custom, the parliamentary dissenters have also produced the official “No” campaign pamphlet titled “The case for voting No” which can be read in full and downloaded at:
https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/files/pamphlet/the-case-for-voting-no.pdf
The first page summary text is as follows:
“REASONS TO VOTE NO – A SUMMARY
This Referendum is not simply about “recognition”. This Voice proposal goes much further.
If passed, it would represent the biggest change to our Constitution in our history.
It is legally risky, with unknown consequences. It would be divisive and permanent.
If you don’t know, vote no.
RISKY
We all want to help Indigenous Australians in disadvantaged communities. However, this Voice is not the answer and presents a real risk to our system of government.
This Voice specifically covers all areas of “Executive Government”. This means no issue is beyond its reach.
The High Court would ultimately determine its powers, not the Parliament.
It risks legal challenges, delays and dysfunctional government.
UNKNOWN
No details have been provided on how members of the Voice would be chosen or how it would operate. Australians are being asked to vote first before these details are worked out.
Australians should have details before the vote, not after.
We don’t know how it will work, we don’t know who will be on it, but we do know it will permanently divide us as Australians.
Some Voice supporters say this would just be a first step to reparations and compensation and other radical changes. So, what would come next?
DIVISIVE
Enshrining a Voice in the Constitution for only one group of Australians means permanently dividing our country.
It creates different classes of citizenship through an unknown body that has the full force of the Constitution behind it. Many Indigenous Australians do not support this.
PERMANENT
Putting a Voice in the Constitution means it’s permanent. We will be stuck with negative consequences
The content of this argument (which can be viewed at aec.gov.au/referendums/pamphlet.htm) was authorised by a majority of those members of Parliament who voted against the proposed law and desired to forward such a case. This text has been published without amendment by the Electoral Commissioner“
******
The official “Yes” campaign pamphlet from the majority of the parliamentary assenters titled “The case for voting Yes” can be read in full and downloaded at:
https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/files/pamphlet/the-case-for-voting-yes.pdf?v=1.0
This affirmative campaign is assisted by YES23.
Examples of how the two very different pamphlets are being initially received in mainstream & social media:
Greg Craven furious no campaign used his previous voice concerns in pamphlet https://t.co/m1SHzOv11Q
— grace pettigrew (@broomstick33) July 18, 2023
Uluru Dialogue's Megan Davis and Pat Anderson, architects of the Voice, call the No referendum essay "cooked" and a "destructive agenda"
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) July 18, 2023
"The NO pamphlet has used taxpayers’ money to distribute misleading information aimed at holding our people back, all Australians in fact." pic.twitter.com/ByEC2JjWci
"The No Campaign have clearly taken advantage of the pamphlet not being fact-checked and done more to embolden racists than they have to argue against the Voice."https://t.co/ZS7FATECqz
— National Indigenous Times (@nit_times) July 18, 2023
The Yes pamphlet says the "idea" for the voice, came from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.....no it didn't AT ALL.....it came from the U.N, and has been in the works for years...."Project UNDRIP"....they lie and lie through their teeth...it's NOT grassroots.
— R1nky d1nk (@RD1nk33775) July 18, 2023
CONCERNING POLLED RESPONSES IN JULY 2023 TO THE PROPOSED NATIONAL REFERENDUM QUESTION
Latest Newspoll conducted on 12-15 July 2023 shows 48 per cent of the 1,570 surveyed voters say they now intend to vote no to the proposal to insert an Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Voice into the Australian Constitution.
Among surveyed voters from regional areas 62 per cent opposed the Voice proposal.
The survey breaks down by gender to 47 per cent of all males surveyed and 49 per cent of all females surveyed now oppose the Voice.
By age it appears that 59 per cent of those younger voters surveyed were in favour of inserting an Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Voice into the Australian Constitution, while 46 per cent of all older voters surveyed were in favour of the Voice.
NOTE: The 15 July 2023 Newspoll as reported does not breakdown responses by state and, as a referendum affirmative requires a majority of the voting age population in a majority of states, it is possible that at this time there is still a majority in favour of the Voices in four of the seven states & territories.
