$1m gift ‘Advanced’ No campaign for Indigenous voice referendum

A million-dollar donation that put the campaign against the Indigenous voice on the path to victory was made by a little-known Perth company, AEC records show.

The $1.025m donation handed to Advance 11 months out from the voice referendum was critical to the success of the No campaign. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A million-dollar donation that put the campaign against the Indigenous voice on the path to victory was made by a little-known Perth company, newly released records from the Australian Electoral Commission show.

The $1.025m donation handed to Advance 11 months out from the voice referendum was critical to the success of the No campaign. The seed money allowed what was then a fledgling campaign to hire core personnel across the country, growing to 30 key staff by referendum day on October 14.

The bulk of donations for and against the voice will not be known for two months, when the AEC publishes the names of donors who made contributions in the period starting six months before the writs were issued for referendum day on October 14.

However, details of earlier donations published on Thursday show that Hadley Holdings Pty Ltd made the largest single donation to the No campaign in the period before writs were issued. The company is directed by Brian Hadley Anderson and Lena Hilton, according to public records.

Mr Anderson, 90, is retired after decades in car sales in Perth.

He is understood to have held personal concerns about the referendum as a private citizen and that is why he made the decision to financially support the No side.

Yes23 was well ahead of the No campaign in amassing a referendum war chest in 2022, swelled by corporate donations.

Mr Anderson, who grew up in Kalgoorlie, said the donation was “not really” political and was made in support of opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. “I am a non-activist private individual,” he said.

“I felt I should do what I can to balance the ledger a little bit because the government had thrown plenty of money at it and so had the corporates.

“I made the donation as a private, non-political person on the principle that Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine made very public: that it was discriminatory, undemocratic and divisive, and racially ­discriminating.”

The then undisclosed cash injection of $1m to Advance helped fast-track the No campaign’s research and polling. “I made the donation on principle motivated by the fact that I deplore the rubbishing of Australia and Australia Day,” Mr Anderson said. “Australians should be proud of this country for very good reasons.”

The AEC on April 1 will publish referendum disclosure returns that capture a seven-month period between March 11 and Oct­ober 14. This period does not capture between July 2022 and March last year, when a number of sizeable corporate donations were made.

The Yes campaign made several public statements about its donors during the campaign. Yes23 launched its campaign in Adelaide in April 2023 with news that the philanthropic Paul ­Ramsay Foundation had pledged $5m. During the campaign, Advance declined to give details of its donors. It said it was a grassroots organisation “supported by the generosity of thousands of ordinary Australians”.