The director of the controversial conservative campaign group Advance says the no campaign aimed to take advantage of voter confusion about the Indigenous voice to parliament, claiming it was able to “shape the conversation” because “very few people” knew about the consultation body.
Matthew Sheahan said the anti-voice group settled on its central argument – that the referendum would cause division – because that theme had been popular in focus groups. He also took credit for the government getting “caught up” in details of the Uluru statement from the heart and treaties.
Speaking at CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) in Sydney on Saturday, Sheahan said Advance’s strategy was to win three states to deny the yes campaign its required double majority of a national majority plus four of six states.
Guardian Australia analysis has shown Advance’s referendum-specific social media pages have focused on Queensland and the smaller-population states of Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
Advance is behind Fair Australia, the main no campaign vehicle fronted by the shadow Indigenous Australians minister, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. She and Warren Mundine, CPAC’s chairman, are public faces of the no campaign.
“We did the research and, through the polling and focus groups, it was clear division was the big factor in people voting no,” Sheahan said.
“But the big problem, which we discovered and which we suspected, was very few people knew about the referendum. But this was an opportunity as it gave us a chance to shape the conversation, to talk about things like the Uluru statement and treaties, all on our terms.”
Anthony Albanese’s government and the Indigenous voice yes campaign have been questioned by voice supporters for not explaining the proposed consultation body in clearer terms at earlier stages of the campaign.
“We’ve had some great success,” Sheahan said. “A lot of the issues Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and others have been caught up in have been specifically, strategically brought up by Advance.”
The prime minister, speaking to the Labor national conference in Brisbane on Saturday, called on supporters of the Indigenous voice to parliament “to get out there and campaign like you have never campaigned before”.
“Explain what the clear question is before the Australian people,” he said.
The yes campaign has become increasingly vocal and critical of the no campaign’s tactics and messaging. Albanese this month claimed no campaigners were “desperate to talk about anything but the actual question” while the Uluru Dialogue co-chair Megan Davis recently accused the no campaign of being “intent on misinformation and division”.
In her CPAC speech, Price told attenders to be “relentless” in their opposition to the voice.
“This is where we as a country draw a line in the sand and say ‘enough is enough’,” she said. “Enough to the gaslighting. Enough with the woke…
2023-08-19 01:19:37
Article from www.theguardian.com
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