Claims ‘sneer’ campaign doing Yes campaign no favours

Supporters of the Voice “Yes” campaign are accused of painting “No” voters as racist and ignorant, attacking them on social media, and rewriting beloved poem “My Country” to make their point.

Yes campaign supporters Jack Thompson, left, Magda Szubanski and Dave O’Neil, right, and the reworked Dorothea Mackellar poem "My Country" which is doing the rounds of social media. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied

Supporters of the Yes campaign for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament have been accused of running a “sneer campaign” against “no” voters, painting them as racist and ignorant, attacking them on social media, and even rewriting Dorothea Mackellar’s beloved poem “My Country” to make their point.

The charge comes after a series of incidents that earlier this week saw No campaigners abused by protesters in Adelaide and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus suggested that one of the Yes campaign’s problems is that many Australians don’t know about the Constitution.

Speaking to RN Breakfast last Friday, Mr Dreyfus said voters should “think about whether there is prejudice and racism” behind what No campaigners “might be saying.”

“A lot of Australians don’t even know we’ve got a Constitution, and that’s what we’re sort of up against here,” he said.

Mr Dreyfus’s comments about the No campaign came just days after an earlier controversy involving Indigenous academic Marcia Langton, who also characterised the arguments of No campaigners as being based in “racism” and “stupidity.”

Australia's Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus raises his arms during a "Walk for Yes" rally in Melbourne on September 17, 2023. Picture: William WEST / AFP)

Yes voters and campaigners have noted the number of celebrities who have smeared would-be “no” voters, suggesting that the main reason people opposed the referendum was racism.

Legendary Australian actor Jack Thompson, when asked about the referendum, told the ABC “A No vote would mean that ill-will, prejudice and sheer bastardry had won.”

Jack Thompson says a No win would be a win for bastardry.

Dave O'Neil ventured No voters had a “selfish worldview”.

Earlier this month, comedian Dave O’Neil asked “Why is there such a big crossover with anti-vaxxers and the No vote people? Selfish worldview perhaps?”

Not long after, fellow comedian and former Kath and Kim star Magda Szubanski asked followers on X, formerly Twitter, to “screen cap and document any misinformation” with the “accounts they are coming from”, saying it was for “future reference.”

The tweet was immediately leapt upon by No voters who asked if she was becoming the “thought police.”

Others pointed to a reworking of the famous Mackellar poem that has been used to attack No voters, reading, “I love a timid country, a land of scare campaigns, where mindless bogan slogans, just overtake our brains.”

YES voters and reasonable undecideds…a favour. Please could you screen cap and document any misinformation , defamation and lies being putting about by the NO campaign? Accounts they are coming from etc
Just for future reference 😉
Thanks muchly

— Magda Szubanski AO (@MagdaSzubanski) September 17, 2023

Meanwhile on the ABC, on Monday Media Watch presenter Paul Barry wondered if the “passion of those Sunday rallies” for the Voice would “lift the Yes campaign” or if “the media’s love of conflict (would) see the message of fear and division dominate the headlines and help push Australians to vote no?”

Anti-Voice campaigners have also been personally smeared.

Well said Jack Thompson,
“A no vote would mean that ill will, prejudice and sheer bastardry had won”#VoteYesAustralia https://t.co/e2cgc4uOA9

— VoteYes23 🌈❤🐬🌏💧🌊👣👣 (@PopsieWagga1) June 6, 2023

Freya Leach, who ran for Balmain as a Liberal in the last state election, said she was attacked on social media after she put up a TikTok video explaining that she wouldn’t be intimidated and called a “racist” for voting No.

In response to her noting that she understood prejudice being the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Indigenous Australian rapper “Senator” Adam Briggs accused her of upholding “a racist system.”

“Will the passion of those Sunday rallies lift the Yes campaign? Or will the media’s love of conflict see the message of fear and division dominate the headlines and help push Australians to vote No?” #MediaWatch pic.twitter.com/KviE3WcUa1

— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) September 18, 2023

“You don’t have to ‘look at a person and judge them’ to be racist. You do it by upholding and reinforcing the values of a racist system,” he said.

Referring to Ms Leach’s grandmother, Mr Briggs added, “If your grandmother was a chef, that doesn’t mean you get to run the kitchen. You benefit from Indigenous, from our, dispossession every day.”

Freya Leach was accused of upholding a “racist system”.

Ms Leach said she thought Mr Briggs was doing what much of the Yes campaign had done, namely be “dismissive while trying to paint any question about the Voice as coming from a racist position.”

“That is absolutely wrong,” she said.

Why is there such a big crossover with anti-vaxxers and the No vote people? Selfish worldview perhaps?

— Dave O'Neil (@itsdaveoneil) September 5, 2023

maybe its the places i go. maybe it's where i live, but i'm yet to see a 'No' poster. A 'No' badge. A 'No' t-shirt. No shortage of anonymous flag-bio 'No' trolls in this place. obviously. but out there irl ... not a sign. Why so sheepish no folk?

— Jonathan Green (@GreenJ) September 17, 2023

Prominent Voice opponent and South Australian Senator Alex Antic, who was present at a No campaign in Adelaide earlier this week where Voice supporters hurled abuse and called attendees “racist pigs,” said the “sneer campaign” was a “perfect storm of academic and corporate virtue signalling and inner city elitism.”

Independent polling analyst Kevin Bonham said that there was no polling as to why the Yes campaign was behind in all major polls, but did note that the referendum was in dire straits.

“At the moment it would seem that there would have to be something wrong with the polls (for Yes to win),” he said.

Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Jacinta Price said, “Instead of sneering at Australians who oppose their campaign of division, maybe the Yes people should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

“They brag about their $100 million advertising blitz, but do they really think shouting obscenities at no voters like they did in Adelaide will convince anyone?

“Australians have every right to proudly vote no, which is a vote against division and vote for moving forward together.”