Voice to Parliament: Yes23 campaign to focus on ‘ordinary’ Australians, not celebrities

Celebrities have been dumped in favour of ‘ordinary’ Australians as the face of the Voice to Parliament’s Yes campaign in response to falling support for the referendum.

The Yes team has dumped plans to put celebrities and sports stars at the centre of its campaign to win October’s referendum on the Voice to Parliament.

With polling showing Voice support has fallen in recent months, the Yes23 campaign has decided instead to concentrate its efforts on using the voices of ordinary Indigenous Australians to explain the benefits they hope it will produce.

The change comes as the Voice campaign plans to hold 24 rallies around Australia on Sunday in a day called “Come Together For Yes”.

In April, News Corp revealed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese planned to recruit a cavalcade of Indigenous superstars to persuade Australians to vote Yes.

Names mentioned included NBA star Patty Mills, Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman, footballers Johnathan Thurston and Adam Goodes, and tennis legends Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Ash Barty.

Indigenous basketballer Patty Mills. Picture: AFP

Sprinter Cathy Freeman. Picture: Stu Forster/Allsport

But although the stars are still expected to endorse the Voice, the Yes team has abandoned plans to put them at the centre of the campaign for fear it would backfire.

A source in the campaign said it had become clear Aussies did not like being told what to do.

Instead of using high-profile endorsements, the Yes case plans to produce ads in which everyday Indigenous Australians talk about what they hope will come from the Voice.

News Corp has obtained examples of the types of ads the Yes case plans to run, which include messages such as: “We have always lobbied and tried to empower our people to take responsibility for their actions but sometimes the system lets us down” and: “Those people in Canberra, they hardly know anything. They’re good at ticking boxes … they don’t come to community to see the struggles we face.”

Tanya Hosch, a board member of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, the peak body for the Yes campaign, said Voice supporters were in no doubt they were up against it to win.

“Obviously we have a huge job in front of us — I don’t think anyone should question our resolve but this is no easy task,” she said.

Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition board member Tanya Hosch. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Ms Hosch said the Yes campaign was not taking any votes for granted.

“We definitely are working to share a lot more Indigenous Australian voices who are clearly putting in their own words why the Voice is important to them and their future,” she said.

“There are so many Australians who want to see positive change for Indigenous peoples and I understand why they want to get clarity from Indigenous Australians about how that is going to work.”

Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Voice was “a practical initiative to close the gap”.

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Originally published as Voice to Parliament: Yes23 campaign to focus on ‘ordinary’ Australians, not celebrities