Yes campaign groups received millions more in donations than No side for Voice referendum

The movement to create an Indigenous Voice to parliament was backed by tens of millions of dollars from Australia’s biggest corporations but eclipsed by opponents who had about five times less money to spend on the bitterly fought referendum.

Half a year on from the historic reconciliation setback, the Australian Electoral Commission released data showing the main campaigners behind the Voice push, led by Yes23 and the Uluru Dialogues, raked in nearly $60 million to spend on advertising.

No advocates have claimed the Voice to parliament referendum stoked division in Australia.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Yes23 fundraising body Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition (AICR) received $47.5 million. Left-wing group GetUp gathered $1.7 million, and the Labor Party secured $400,000.

AICR spent $3.5 million less than it collected in donations. A spokesperson said the body’s board was still determining how the excess cash would be spent.

Their opponents on the No side, led by right-wing campaigners Advance and fundraising body Australians for Unity, received about $13 million for its campaign run alongside Coalition figures Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

While high-profile figures such as Malcolm Turnbull gave $50,000 to the Yes side, the No side was funded largely by lesser-known conservative business people and philanthropists such as Bryant Macfie, a long-time donor to right-wing think tanks, who gave $800,000 and Bakers Delight founder Roger Gillespie who contributed $90,000.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer spent $1.9 million on anti-Voice ads and the former boss of BHP, Maius Kloppers, gave the No side $100,000. But Kloppers’ old firm and its blue-chip counterparts swung heavily behind the Yes campaign, earning a rebuke from Price.

MYOB founder Craig Winkler’s firm gave $4.5 million to the Yes-aligned Uluru Dialogues. ANZ bank gave $2.5 million to the Yes23 funding body while Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Wesfarmers, BHP, Rio Tinto, Woolworths Group, Woodside Energy and NAB all gave more than $1 million to the same organisation.

Megan Davis, a leader of the Uluru Dialogues which raised about $11 million, claimed the No side was spreading “lies” on social media much earlier than the six-month reporting period captured in the data.

“It proves no amount of money supporting the case for a successful Referendum can withstand lies in political debate without laws to regulate and support truth in political advertising,” she said.

Price, who rose to prominence during the campaign, said the referendum was a waste of time and energy that should never have been put by the Albanese government.

“It’s alarming to think that corporates feel that they have the ability to control how Australians think and feel, particularly during a referendum,” she said on radio station 6PR.

On the No side, Australians for Unity, received about $11 million, the Liberal Party $1.9 million, and high-profile campaigners Advance $1.3 million.

Advance, who worked with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and advocate Warren Mundine, ran the operations of the No campaign and was also funded by the donations given to Australians for Unity.

The biggest individual donors were the Paul Ramsay Foundation – founded through a bequest from the Australian business of the same name – which gave $7 million to the main pro-Voice group.

The Yes campaign was also backed by $1.5 million from Dr Sophie Oh, who helped found the Susan McKinnon Foundation, $1 million from the Pratt family, $250,000 from PwC, $150,000 from Mecca cosmetics, and $300,000 from the Climate 200 progressive fundraising vehicle.

The Liberal Party, at $1.9 million, spent about three times as much as Labor on the referendum. But the spending of both parties was dwarfed by the main campaigners, which spent about $55 million (Yes) and $12 million (No).

Donations made more than six months before the October referendum were not required to be disclosed. Neither were donations smaller than $15,200.

A preliminary analysis by the Australian Democracy Network showed the source of 21 per cent of the $79.6 million in total donations was not disclosed. Transparency groups label this “dark funding”, and Labor has committed to lowering the threshold for disclosure to about $1000.

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