‘Domino effect’: Liberal supporters of the Voice preparing formal Yes campaign

Liberal supporters of the Voice are mobilising to launch the party’s formal Yes campaign once a parliamentary inquiry settles on the wording of the referendum next month, hoping to double support inside the federal party room.

Current and former Liberal MPs and staffers have created a database of party members who support the Indigenous Voice to parliament, as they look to push back against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s announcement that the party will formally oppose the Voice.

The Liberal MPs who are for the Voice are starting to organise their campaign.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

They plan to launch a “Liberals for Yes” campaign after the parliamentary inquiry into the referendum hands down its findings on May 15.

The party room’s resolution to formally oppose a constitutionally enshrined Voice has caused significant divisions within the Liberals: former Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt resigned from the party and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser stepped down from the frontbench.

Only two Liberal MPs, Leeser and Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer, have publicly declared they will support the Yes campaign.

However, a number of other MPs – including Andrew Bragg, Russell Broadbent, Jennie Ware, and Richard Colbeck – spoke against elements of the position at a party room meeting on April 5.

Three frontbenchers – Simon Birmingham, Paul Fletcher and Marise Payne – spoke out in a shadow cabinet meeting against the party’s plan, favouring an option put forward by Leeser to allow all members to have a free say on the Voice until the parliamentary committee completed its work.

Many Liberal supporters of the Voice want the Albanese government to accept Leeser’s suggestion to delete clause two of the proposed amendment that empowers the Voice to advise the executive government as well as the parliament. They believe this would address concerns about the Voice’s potentially disruptive impact on the operations of government and make it easier for Coalition voters to support the referendum.

Bragg, a member of the parliamentary inquiry into the wording of the referendum, which held its first hearing on Friday, is holding out from declaring his position until after the inquiry is completed.

He said he believed support for the Voice in the party room could be doubled if the wording of the referendum was changed.

“I want the best possible words to be presented and the evidence [on Friday] was that a number of constitutional experts agree that the words could be improved,” said Bragg, a longstanding supporter of a Voice to parliament and constitutional recognition.

“The better the wording, the better the chances of success. And by better, I don’t mean a Voice which is entirely neutered and can’t speak to the executive.

“There’s a column of support, I think, that could be unlocked if this proposal was de-risked ... I think you would double the group.”

Anne Twomey, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sydney, told the inquiry on Friday that the wording could be amended to be more precise.

“I do not believe the High Court will draw the kind of implications people have said,” Twomey said.

“Could the wording be more precise? The answer is always yes. Do I have objections to it being more precise? The answer is no.”

Liberal members mobilising on WhatsApp

Hours after Dutton announced the party would oppose the referendum for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, some Liberal members were invited into a WhatsApp group entitled “Operation Valkyrie”.

Armed with a codename drawing inspiration from a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, party members began canvassing how they could push back against the decision and campaign for the Voice.

Liberal MPs said they were never in the group.

It was one of multiple groups created on encrypted messaging service WhatsApp by Liberal members in the hours and days leading up to and following Dutton’s announcement.

There is a wider WhatsApp group that includes current and former MPs and staffers, where discussions on the upcoming steps are taking place.

Members of the group chat said it has a less contentious name than the 1944 plot to overthrow Hitler, which resulted in all the conspirators being executed.

‘Define our party for a generation’

The day before Liberal MPs went into the party room on April 5, their former colleague Fiona Martin sent some of them a text message urging them to be courageous.

“Good luck tomorrow. The outcome of tomorrow has the potential to define our party for a generation. Back yourself, be heard,” read the message from Martin, who lost her seat of Reid at last year’s election.

While the weight of the Coalition party room is against the Voice, Liberal MPs who support it are starting to organise their pushback against the decision.Credit: James Brickwood

Martin told this masthead the Voice should have been above party politics, but many Liberals had decided to back an “American-style scare campaign” against the referendum instead.

“We have legal obligations through the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that Australia has supported since 2007,” Martin said.

“My job as a Liberal is to encourage members of my party to see and to highlight our obligations internationally, but also our moral obligations.”

Martin said the Liberal Party should be advocating for the Voice because “we are the party that wants communities to be able to do things independently”.

While the current group of MPs publicly supporting the Voice is small, Martin said she believed there would be a “domino effect” with more coming out onto the Yes side.

“I actually think the more Liberals that speak out and are quite vocal on this, the more likely that we will get other Liberals who are sort of thinking about it now to jump on board on this issue.”

Martin said there would definitely be a formal campaign of Liberals in favour of the Voice, but it would most likely be launched once the parliamentary committee finishes up next month.

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