‘Quite irresponsible financially’: City of Melbourne spent $140k spruiking ‘yes’ vote during Voice referendum

The City of Melbourne has copped fierce backlash after the total amount of ratepayer funds it spent spruiking a ‘yes’ vote in the 2023 Voice referendum was finally revealed. See the shock figure.

The City of Melbourne forked out $140,000 spruiking the ‘yes’ vote at the 2023 Voice referendum. Picture: Ian Currie

The City of Melbourne spent $140,000 of ratepayer funds spruiking the case for a ‘yes’ vote in the unsuccessful Voice referendum.

A council spokeswoman said the council paid for an “education campaign” that “shared information about the referendum process, explained the benefits of a ‘yes’ vote and promoted respectful and informed debate in the community”.

“Council spent around $140,000 on the campaign — with the majority of funding spent on educational information targeted at those most likely to be uninformed about the referendum process, including non-English-speaking communities and older voters,” she said.

“This included educational events, translated material, printed information packs and social media advertising.”

The City of Melbourne spent $140,000 of ratepayer funds spruiking the case for a ‘yes’ vote. Picture: William West

Councillor Owen Guest, who was elected in the 2024 council elections and lead’s the Finance, Governance and Risk portfolio, said no ratepayer funds should have been spent on advocating for a yes vote by the previous council.

“Whether it be the Voice (referendum) or other contentious issues, I think our council would be far better off not getting involved, on one side or another,” Mr Guest said.

“This isn’t what the average ratepayer has been asking us to do. It could actually be deemed to be quite irresponsible financially.

“It was also a costly and time consuming enterprise at a time when the budget was stretched.”

Councillor Owen Guest, pictured with now Lord Mayor Nick Reece, said no ratepayer funds should have been spent on the Voice campaign. Picture: Jason Edwards

The council’s annual report for the 2023-24 financial year, shows that Town Hall recorded an underlying deficit of $15 million at the time when it was spending $140,000 to convince voters to support the yes campaign.

Mr Guest said the council should get back to the basics.

“This is not what we are meant to be doing,” he said.

“We are meant to be looking after Melburnians, keeping our city clean and making sure it is great place to do business.

“It seems that the council has bitten off more than it can chew for quite a while now.”

The referendum failed and a majority ‘no’ vote was recorded in every state. Picture: Getty Images

Lord Mayor Nick Reece, who was at the time deputy lord mayor, voted for the council to campaign for a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum — which was held on October 14, 2023.

However, the referendum failed and a majority ‘no’ vote was recorded in every state — including Victoria — and the Northern Territory.
The only jurisdiction to have a majority yes vote was the Australian Capital Territory.

The previous council, under the leadership of Sally Capp, also voted to lobby the Federal Government to change the date of Australia Day, despite the City of Melbourne having less than one per cent of the nation’s population living in the municipality.