The No campaign against the Voice to Parliament has launched a digital campaign that appears to be targeting Indigenous voters.
It’s the latest in a number of Facebook pages run by the No campaign aimed at different voters with sometimes contradictory messages.
Not My Voice is a Facebook page and website created late last month and authorised by Nyunggai Warren Mundine on behalf of Australians for Unity, a group created by the merger of Mundine’s Recognise a Better Way and Advance’s Fair Australia campaigns against the Voice.
The campaign appears to be targeted directly at Indigenous voters. Fronted by Mundine and featuring testimonials from a handful of other Indigenous people, Not My Voice’s website uses phrases like “We don’t need to be treated differently” and “The Voice proposes to minimise our diversity by shrinking our 300 tribes down to 25 people”.
Not My Voice argues that the Voice to Parliament is a policy promoted by Indigenous elites. “They’re the same people who have been on government boards and committees for decades and now they want to be in the constitution,” the website says beside a picture of Mundine, who has previously sat on the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Indigenous Economic Advisory Council of the Australian Government, the SBS board, and currently sits on a number of boards, according to his LinkedIn.
Starting late last week, Australians for Unity has spent $7700 promoting a seven-minute documentary about Mundine to more than 400,000 people across Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta’s Ad Library.
Behind the scenes, the campaign appears to be mostly run by Advance (formerly Advance Australia). Its website is registered to ADVANCE AUS Ltd and Advance’s executive director Matthew Sheahan. Sheahan and other Advance staff are registered as directors of Australians for Unity along with Mundine and Gary Johns (who has recently rejected calls to resign over offensive comments).
While donations are solicited by Australian for Unity — a registered charity that has deductible gift recipient status — Not My Voice’s donation policy specifies: “All donations made to AFU will go to supporting the No campaign by Fair Australia, powered by ADVANCE.”
The No camp has an array of different campaigns targeted at specific voters. Crikey first reported in May that Advance, on top of its main Fair Australia campaign, was running a “news” Facebook page called Referendum News, and Not Enough, a Facebook page using progressive arguments against the Voice.
While the No campaign outspent the Yes campaign on digital advertising for parts of the first half of the year, the Yes campaign has drastically increased its spending as its position has slipped in the polls.
Australians for Unity did not respond to a request for comment.
When the Voice fails, Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price will net be remembered well in history for their vital role in destroying the hopes and aspirations of the vast majority of Indigenous people through their distortions and falsehoods all through the Voice campaign.
One day, we may find out what vested interests caused their actions.
Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine are very loyal members of the Liberal Party and do not represent Aboriginal people. Advance Australia sponsors them in part (Liberal party offshoot) and Price has been influenced by the Institute of Public Affairs.
Hello there future historian, do we still have roads where you are?
Now if the voice fails I reckon actual historians in the actual future might take that as the majority view at the time….
I do wonder how far we’ll need to go into the future before the “yes” campaign starts to analyse how it might have done a better job – hopefully not so far in the future that it happens after the referendum.
Don’t know about doing a better job, more to do with being truthful and maybe spending as much money.
Mundine will tell a story for whoever pays him imo, Price is an attention seeker. If the voters of Fadden were an example of No voters, what hope do we have ?
Mundine is also someone who allegedly left his first wife because she was too “Aboriginal”.
I would suggest one thing the “yes” needs to start doing quickly is forgetting this idea that they are the source of all truth and “no” is the source of all lies.
That assumption stops “yes” from properly engaging with the “no” side and the undecided’s since they believe they’re on the side of “truth”.
Add in a sense of moral superiority and there’s basically no engagement and without engagement the referendum basically comes down to the pre-decided’s and a strong likelihood that undecided’s will never be convinced.
“Yes” need to snap out of their arrogance and sense of virtuousness, and start engaging. Debating has to be more than “liar, liar, pants on fire” and “you’re mean, I am not talking to you”.
Most of the “no” case is lies, though.
But the “yes” case, has spent far too much time and material engaging with the lies, and not enough time making a case for change.
Sadly this is typically the case, however – “a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth even has its pants on”.
If you look at the aboriginal disadvantage all over Australia, but especially in the bush, and then have a quick scan of the health stats for Aboriginals v whiteys you cant help but leap to the conclusion that they have been treated differently already and that needs to change. So if they where all as well off as the average whitey then yes, no need to treat differently. Since thats not the case something does have to change.
Mundine needs to pull his head in.
Mundane either sees himself as a special person or he has simply forgotten he is aboriginal.
it will be interesting to see what the Liberals/Nationals, once they have beaten Labor on the referendum and declared their Great Victory, propose in place of the voice – presumably legislation for compulsory homogenisation that outlaws anyone being ‘treated differently’.
It will be back to business as usual, cut the funding, get more donations from the big end of town. There wont be any new policies for the ingenious population or the white people. Just more consultants
I just dont understand why Mundine and others are in bed with the right and in particular the evangelical right. He is either expectant of some personal game or he is just being used for credibility now and perhaps as a scapegoat later on. Utter madness.
He’s married to Gerard Henderson daughter. Son in law to a fake Christian
It says a lot about Mundine that he is defending Johns tonight. Defending a man who is clearly motivated by outright racism. I don’t think Mundine has ever done one bit of good for a Blakfella who wasn’t himself. Local Kooris where I live who knew him tend to mumble something about coconuts. He is a disgrace.