Indigenous voice referendum: One side was rolling in donations

The Yes23 campaign received so much money in the six months before the referendum – more than $47m – that it could not spend it all.

The official list of who donated as Australia made up its mind about the Indigenous voice appear as yet more proof that the Yes side was the Goliath in this battle.

The Yes23 campaign received so much money in the six months before the referendum – more than $47m – that it could not spend it all. Yes23 arrived at the finish line on October 14 with more than $3.6m left over from its clutch of corporate and philanthropic donations. Its board will now decide what to do with the surplus.

For the Yes voters, emphatically outnumbered on referendum day, the figures are sad reading. Doubtless evidence of the large sums will fuel discussions about what could have and should have been done differently.

Was it right for the Yes side to have two strands? Should the Yes23 campaign that drew big names have tried to merge with the Uluru dialogue campaign that concentrated on the difficult and slow work of workshops in small towns and remote communities?

But the No side had its own strands to no ill effect. Warren Mundine went on national television to talk about how good treaties are and his side still won.

What we do not know is how much money each side had in its coffers on March 11 when the Australian Electoral Commission’s reporting period started.

We can see that Advance Australia spent $10.44m between March 11 last year and referendum day. However, it received only $1.3m in donations during that time.

We are left to wonder how this could be. Explanations include that Advance was cashed up before the firing gun started on the campaign or that it received an astonishing number of donations, each smaller than $15,200 in six months.

The transparency register tells us some fascinating things – for example, the Liberal Party outspent Labor in the voice campaign and the very broke WA Liberal Party made $127,000 from its voice fundraising.

That surplus is not going back to donors. It will be funnelled into future campaigns – most likely the 2025 state election campaign, The Australian has been told.