Indigenous voice to parliament: Clive Palmer pays out $2m to say No

Clive Palmer will spend $2m encouraging a No vote in key states, amid rising concerns Yes23’s $50m war chest will fall short in swinging enough votes to claim victory.

Clive Palmer says said his company Mineralogy and not the United Australia Party ‘would be directly spending a couple of million on the (voice) campaign’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Clive Palmer will spend $2m promoting the No vote, including a final-week advertising blitz in South Australia and Tasmania, amid rising concerns that Yes23’s $50m war chest could fall short in swinging enough votes for a come-from-behind victory in the voice referendum.

Yes23, No and third-party organisations are on track to spend more than $30m on advertising ahead of the October 14 referendum, with the bulk of funding quarantined for a final two-week push to win over soft and undecided voters.

South Australia and Tasmania, where the fate of the referendum to constitutionally en­shrine an Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government is expected to be decided, will become ground zero for Yes and No campaigners as early voting begins next week. Ahead of Anthony Albanese taking his cabinet to Tasmania early next week, Mr Palmer told The Australian he would concentrate advertising in the “final week” of the referendum campaign and focus on the two southern battleground states.

The billionaire mining magnate, who secured one seat in parliament after spending $117m at the 2022 federal election, said his company Mineralogy and not the United Australia Party “would be directly spending a couple of million on the (voice) campaign”.

“We’re spending the money to put our point of view forward. We’re targeting Tasmania and South Australia. We’ll be advertising in all the states but will be ­focusing on them. It’s cheaper to spend advertising in Tassie and South Australia,” Mr Palmer said.

“I think the No case will win. My prediction is 30 per cent Yes when we get to the polling date. If you look at it in the proper context, the most important thing in Australia is not Yes or No at the moment, it’s the cost-of-living and how the average Australian is going to make his way.”

The UAP founder, who confirmed he had not consulted with Indigenous leaders, said his campaign reflected a “personal view” and was not associated with the official No campaign.

Sources close to the Yes campaign told The Australian they were “coming from a long way back” and conceded it would be difficult to shift ground in the final fortnight. No campaigners remain anxious that soft voters could peel off as Australians finalise their ­positions.

As the Australian Electoral Commission prepares to open early voting centres across the country on Monday and Tuesday, new donations figures reveal the big-spending, high-stakes battle being waged between the Yes23 and No campaigns, who are receiving direct and indirect support from third-party political organisations, unions and activist groups.

The Australian can reveal the No campaign has amassed more than $13m from almost 40,500 donations since November last year. From July 1, the No campaign’s Australians for Unity funding vehicle collected $7.6m from 21,033 donations with an average gift size of $361.

Yes23, which rejects being ­labelled a corporate-funded movement, has this month received $1.6m in grassroots donations with average gifts of around $187.

Yes campaign sources said grassroots donations trends were consistent over recent months.

The Yes campaign expects to raise at least $50m through its Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition funding vehicle, which is half the $100m figure used by No campaigners to encourage donations.

While the overall size of the Yes23 war chest is unknown, companies, individuals and groups including BHP, Rio Tinto, Anthony Pratt, Wesfarmers, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, NAB Foundation, ANZ and Qantas have publicly disclosed more than $26.7m in donations, including subsidised travel costs and office space.

As the Liberal Party and Labor Party conduct their own fundraising drives, the Yes and No campaigns are ramping-up last-ditch efforts to raise money for advertising blitzes blanketing airwaves, digital and print platforms in key states. Yes23 has allocated up to $20m for its final five-week referendum push.

A Yes23 spokesman said “we are a people-powered and grassroots campaign”.

“Our 40,000 volunteers are from all walks of life and we have the backing of hundreds of community organisations.

“The No campaign is also being backed by the likes of Clive Palmer who spent over $120m during the 2022 federal election, and is running advertising supporting a No vote,” the Yes23 spokesman said.

“Whilst over 200,000 everyday Australians walked in support of a Yes vote two weeks ago, neo-Nazis, pro-Russian activists and sovereign citizen conspiracy theorists supported No campaign rallies last weekend.”

A No campaign spokesman said “the lies won’t stop from the Yes campaign … their claims of big money propping up the No campaign has been shown up as an ­absolute lie”.

“Their claim of being a grassroots-powered movement is another lie. The reality that they cannot avoid is that the Yes campaign is a corporate-sponsored behemoth set on dividing our country,” the spokesman said.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: Martin Ollman / NCA NewsWire

If the Yes23 campaign raises $50m, the No spokesman said the “only question left is the total value of in-kind support they’ve been given and how far over their $100m budget this would take them”.

The ALP, which is not directly running advertising, has informed donors that money raised will be put towards specific causes. Donations raised by the ALP for Yes advertising are being distributed to the Yes23 and Uluru Dialogue campaigns.

Similar to the ALP and unions, the Liberals and Nationals are organising supporters to hand out forms at prepoll booths and election centres on referendum day. The Liberals have also co-ordinated a postal vote drive, which has contributed to a record 1.2 million applications for postal votes.

Yes and No campaigners have exchanged barbs over the opaque involvement of political parties, unions and activist groups and whether funding could be redirected through third-parties.

Mr Palmer said the “big thing will be whether Australians get out and vote”.

“It’s a shocking proposition. All over the world, people like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and others have fought to keep race out of the law and constitutions. If you’re an Aboriginal person, you should have the same rights as all Australians to go to your member of parliament or start a legal action,” he said.

“But once they bring in the voice, they say you’re Aboriginal, you go over and see the voice people and they’ll decide for you whether you’ve got a say or not. Aboriginal people have been run by committees since the First Fleet, they’ve never had a say.”

The referendum expenditure period, requiring disclosure of campaigning expenses and donations exceeding $15,200, is between March 11 and October 14. The AEC has reached out to around 350 entities that will likely have funding disclosure obligations under the Referendum Act.

There will be a three-day advertising blackout from October 12 until polls close on October 14.