Right-wing group targets Greens in million-dollar ad blitz

Right-wing activist group Advance is preparing to launch a $1.5 million advertising campaign aimed at women that will target the Greens for their handling of sexual assault allegations.

Although Advance, formerly Advance Australia, is typically an ally of conservative political parties, the campaign makes them an unlikely ally of Labor and will be geo-targeted to marginal seats including Wills and Macnamara in Melbourne, and Ryan and Griffith in the Queensland capital.

Senator Dorinda Cox and Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

The activist group, which ran a highly effective campaign advocating a No vote in the Voice to parliament referendum last year, wants to head off any possibility of the Greens winning more seats and Labor then being forced into forming a minority government after the next election.

Advance’s Voice campaign was criticised for spreading misinformation about the potential impact of the constitutional change, but the No vote was successful and the group was credited with helping achieve that victory.

The “Her Truth” campaign, which the group claims will be funded by its mostly small donors, is aimed at female voters because they are twice as likely to vote for the Greens. The advertisement says it includes “real quotes from sexual assault victims within one of the largest political parties in Australia”.

The quotes include women stating “I was belittled, silenced and victim-blamed” and “the Greens don’t care what happens to women within the party”, drawing on reporting done by the ABC and Crikey from 2017 and 2018.

A still from an Advance advertisement targeting the Greens. Credit:

Separate ads feature women named Angel and Julie, who are former Greens voters and members who sharply criticise the party for having strayed from its original mission and values.

The first stage of Advance’s campaign against the Greens, which has argued the environmental party is “not who they used to be”, began in April this year, with the activist group spending between $50,000 and $100,000 a month on the ads.

The next phase of the campaign, which begins later this week with the release of the “Her Truth” ad and which will run until Australia Day next year, marks a significant escalation of the attack on the Greens – and a potentially huge increase in spending by Advance on ads that will run on bus and railway stops, billboards, social media and even on catch-up TV services.

The ad campaign comes after the party has faced weeks of damaging bullying allegations directed at WA senator and First Nations spokeswoman Dorinda Cox, who has seen at least 20 staff quit her office over the past three years.

It also comes after the party lost seats in recent elections in Queensland and the ACT, and as the most recent Resolve Political Monitor poll conducted for this masthead found the party’s primary vote had slipped by three percentage points to 11 per cent since June and that party leader Adam Bandt was the third least-likeable politician in Australia.

Advance spokeswoman Sandra Bourke, who authorised the advertisements, said about 250,000 people voted Greens one, Liberal two at the 2022 election and “we think that if they know what they’re voting for, they’ll change their votes”.

“People are voting for the party of Bob Brown, but they aren’t that party any more,” Bourke said. “They are a party of antisemitic and violent activists that has a long-term toxic culture of covering up appalling behaviour towards staff and volunteers, particularly women.

“This campaign isn’t about favouring either of the major parties, but we do believe the worst thing for Australia would be a minority Labor-Greens government, and we are committed to reducing the power and influence of the Greens.”

But Greens leader Adam Bandt said Advance was backed by billionaires and conservative figures such as Tony Abbott and was “desperately trying to stop a shared-power parliament where the Greens will push for a big corporations tax to fund free GP clinics, dental into Medicare, a freeze on rent increases and no new coal and gas”.

“Greens policies will help everyday Australians in a cost-of-living crisis, but will leave billionaires and big corporations paying more tax, so it’s no surprise that the country’s richest people are ganging up through Advance to try and stop the Greens’ plans for a fairer country.

“Increasingly, Advance is using deceptive tactics because they know people are sceptical of their attacks funded by coal and gas billionaires and big corporate donors.”

Advance claims to have 341,027 supporters and 34,815 donors, the vast majority of whom it claims are small donors who give less than $500 to the group.

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