Inside the conservative forum rallying troops against the Voice

Coalition firebrand senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was treated to a rock star’s welcome as she strode onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Sydney and rallied the crowd to do everything they could to oppose the Voice to parliament referendum.

The Voice was a central theme of this year’s CPAC Australia event on Saturday, as the who’s who of the No campaign rubbed shoulders with hundreds of conservative voters who paid up to $600 to attend the two-day conference. For those chasing the VIP experience and access to the after party, it was $7000.

Coalition frontbencher and leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price addresses the CPAC crowd on Saturday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Wearing a “Vote No” T-shirt, Price told attendees that while the polling was trending in the direction of a referendum defeat, they should not get complacent.

“We need every single one of you to sign up ... to talk to your friends and family and your community. We need every single one of you to be relentless in your opposition to this dangerous, divisive referendum,” Price said.

In a speech that criticised the Yes campaign and Labor, Price said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had “surrounded himself with the likes of Thomas Mayo and Teela Reid”, Aboriginal activists who served on the government’s referendums advisory panels.

The No campaigners have seized on tweets from Mayo and Reid calling for reparations and other demands to suggest there is a hidden agenda behind the Voice.

Price continued: “They don’t want the best for Indigenous Australians. They want the rent paid. They want to pay their respects to the elders of the communist party. They want to abolish Australia Day. They want reparations.”

There was no mention of the revelations this week that Australian Jewish Association head David Adler, who sits on the advisory board of top No outfit Advance, had repeatedly suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that Indigenous journalist Stan Grant had artificially darkened his skin, and had questioned Independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s Aboriginal heritage. Price is the spokeswoman for Advance’s anti-Voice campaign Fair Australia.

CPAC Australia organisers had no comment to questions about its sponsor Give Send Go, a Christian crowdfunding website appearing to host fundraising efforts for the legal costs for Australian neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell who was convicted last year of assaulting a Nine security guard. The site was also used to fundraise for medical costs for far-right leader Blair Cottrell.

This masthead does not suggest that the No campaign or CPAC Australia share the views of extremists who have used Give Send Go to fundraise.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott told CPAC that defeating the Voice was the biggest challenge facing the nation.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The conference, held at Sydney’s The Star casino, is modelled on the American CPAC that has in recent years become aligned with former US president Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party.

The Sydney event was attended by a rollcall of conservative politicians, including former prime minister Tony Abbott, current Coalition MPs Ted O’Brien, Barnaby Joyce, Bridget McKenzie and Alex Antic, who gave speeches or appeared on panels. Media were welcomed to cover the proceedings, but their lanyard passes granting them entry were emblazoned with Trump’s “fake news” epithet.

In his keynote address, Abbott told the crowd that defeating the Voice referendum was “the most important challenge we face as a nation right now”.

“This generation of Aboriginal Australians are not victims. This generation of non-Aboriginal Australians are not oppressors,” Abbott said.

“And the last thing that we should be doing right now is entrenching victimhood and institutionalising grievance in our governance arrangements and that’s why there can only be one response to this referendum proposal and that is an absolutely resounding No.”

Advance director Matthew Sheahan, who rarely speaks publicly about his controversial campaigning outfit, lifted the lid on its referendum strategy, saying research through polling and focus groups had informed its key messaging against the Voice as a proposal that is divisive.

“It was clear that division was the big, big factor for people voting No ... But the big problem which we discovered and expected was that very few people knew about the referendum,” Sheahan said.

“This was an opportunity because it gave us a chance to shape the conversation, to talk about things like the Uluru Statement and treaty, all on our terms.” He urged the audience to sign up to staff pre-poll and polling booths on voting day, saying the No effort needed 40,000 volunteers to cover 170,000 volunteer hours.

CPAC chairman Warren Mundine, who along with Price are the two Indigenous leaders steering the No campaign, used his opening address to tell the crowd it was wrong to suggest that those who opposed the Voice were racist.

“All these people say that we’re racist. Are you racist?” he asked the crowd.

“No!” they responded.

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