Andrew Bolt: Yes campaign bills even more to be ashamed of

The Yes campaign for the Voice may have been backed by money, celebrities, institutions and business leaders but Australians still heard the arguments and voted No to dividing us by race.

Now that we see the bills, the people who pushed that disastrous Yes campaign on us should feel even more ashamed of themselves.

How could they have lost last year’s referendum – and by such a massive margin, 60 per cent to 40 – when they had so much cash from the top end of town to bombard us with their ads?

The declarations to the Australian Electoral Commission, released this week, show the Yes campaigners got $60m in donations, and No campaigners just $25m.

That explains why the Yes campaign could afford so much more advertising. Qantas also flew key Yes figures around the country for free. You couldn’t miss the Yes message unless you were deaf and blind.

But even that doesn’t tell the whole catastrophe.

The Yes campaign also had many more VIPs telling us to vote for the Voice, a kind of Aboriginal-only advisory parliament, in our Constitution.

Universities declared their support, as did all the big faith groups and big sports codes, including the AFL, NRL, Football Australia, Cricket Australia and Tennis Australia. The ABC and most media outlets were clearly for the Voice, as were most politicians and almost every celebrity with an opinion.

Australians undoubtedly heard the arguments for the Voice, yet decided to vote No to dividing us by race. Picture: Martin Ollman

Big Unions and Big Bosses also said vote Yes. The Business Council and Australian Industry Group backed the Voice, and many of our biggest corporates each gave the Yes campaign $2m or more, without asking their shareholders’ permission – ANZ, Woodside, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Wesfarmers, BHP and Rio Tinto.

Big W played tapes at shoppers urging them to vote Yes.

I could go on, but you get the message – the Yes campaign was backed by the money, the celebrities, the institutions, the business leaders and the morality industry, including big charities. Yet they still lost, and badly.

Two things are clear. First, Australians undoubtedly heard the arguments for the Voice, yet decided to vote No to dividing us by race. Yes campaigners can’t blame this on ignorance or confusion.

Indeed, not even Aboriginal people seem keen on a Voice. South Australia’s Labor government last year created its own First Nations Voice to Parliament, which last week held its first elections. Fewer than 9 per cent of the state’s Aboriginal adults bothered to vote.

Second, the elite’s bullying of “average Australians” doesn’t work, nor its expensive ads. If anything, it caused a revolt, just as it did in the 1999 republican referendum.

Isn’t that a comfort?

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Yes campaign bills even more to be ashamed of