The conservative advocacy group “powering” the no campaign almost doubled its donations to raise nearly $5m in the lead up to the historic referendum.
Advance Australia, a once relatively obscure answer to the progressive activist group Get Up, raised $4.9m in donations over the 2022-23 financial year, its most recent financial report lodged with the corporate regulator, Asic, shows. This represents a near doubling on the previous year’s figure of $2.5m.
Advance Australia’s report showed it received an additional $2m in income from the “services” it provides. The firebrand group, which supported the no campaign in its victory in October, also spent $3.4m on its campaigning efforts in the year leading up to July 2023.
Advance said much of the work preparing for the campaign against the Indigenous voice to Parliament had been completed in the 22-23 financial year. The group had run a number of fundraising appeals in the first half of 2023, with former fund manager and regulator donor to Advance Simon Fenwick matching $250,000 in supporter donations in April.
Through its primary no campaign vehicle, Fair Australia – which was fronted by the shadow Indigenous Australians minister, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – the group countered the yes group’s call for progress and unity.
Instead, its key messaging centred around division after focus group research suggested it would be popular, its executive director Matthew Sheahan told the Conservative Political Action Conference in August.
“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.
That message was spread through talking points during media appearances but also through its targeted online advertising campaign. Advance spent $313,500 across 272 ads on its main no campaign Facebook page, Fair Australia, according to Meta’s ad library tool.
In the financial report, it claimed the reach of its social media posts on Meta platforms had increased 62.3% in the last financial year to 47.4 million people. Advance Australia alone has spent $880,000 across 1,370 Facebook ads since August 2020, according to Meta’s ad library tool.
Yes23, by comparison, spent $2.3m across 10,222 ads on Facebook.
Beyond the voice campaign, Advance said in its recent financial report its focus was on countering “threats to Australia’s freedom, prosperity and security posed by the formation of a left-wing Australian government”.
“The organisation exists to give everyday Australians a voice to counter the radical left-wing organisations that seek to change our way of life,” the group’s stated aim said.
Sheahan told supporters in an email after the referendum’s defeat the group’s next target would be Labor’s combatting disinformation bill.
Those within the yes camp accused Advance and Fair Australia of misleading the public during the referendum.
“They are regrouping,” the executive director said in an email after the 14 October vote. “Why do you think they’re already talking about new laws to make misinformation a crime?
“They think the only way they can win is if they silence their opponents.”
The bill would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority more powers over digital platforms when dealing with “content [that] is false, misleading or deceptive, and where the provision of that content on the service is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm”.
It is expected the bill will be introduced to parliament before the end of the year.
