Indigenous voice to parliament: Libs and Nats bolster No campaign, as Yes23 launches new ad

Liberal and Nationals divisions across the country will co-ordinate resources with the No campaign to boost volunteer stocks, as Yes23 launches a nationwide advertising blitz to claw back voters.

Anthony Albanese, with AFL legend Michael Long, is under pressure to help Yes23 win the October 14 referendum. Picture: Martin Ollman / NCA NewsWire

Liberal and Nationals divisions across the country have agreed to co-ordinate resources with the No campaign and boost volunteer stocks, as Yes23 launches a nationwide advertising blitz to claw back voters ahead of the ­October 14 voice referendum.

In a major boost for the No campaign, The Weekend Australian can reveal that all Liberal Party state divisions and the Nationals have pledged to actively support members who volunteer and hand out on referendum day and at pre-poll booths.

With Yes23 boasting around 40,000 volunteers – bolstered by union and ALP members – the number of No volunteers is now expected to be significantly higher than the 15,000 anti-voice supporters who have already pledged to hand out and actively campaign at polling booths.

Amid rising pressure on Anthony Albanese to provide more detail about how a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament and executive government would close the gap for Indigenous Australians, Yes23 will blanket airwaves from Saturday with a new campaign ad push.

The ad, running across TV, print, radio and digital platforms, features a young Indigenous child asking simple questions about whether a voice would mean better opportunities for him in areas including health, education and employment.

Yes23 will stage mass walks in more than 40 capital cities and regional towns on the weekend, marking the campaign’s biggest show of force. Paul Kelly, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett, Bernard Fanning, Missy Higgins, Spiderbait and Dan Sultan will perform at the Yes23 events, which are expected to attract tens of thousands of supporters.

As Yes23 ramps-up its promotions, confirmation that Liberal and Nationals organisations are shifting resources closer to the No campaign will heap more pressure on Yes strategists seeking to reverse negative opinion polls.

There had been initial reluctance from senior Liberal figures to align the party too closely with the Fair Australia No campaign, run by right-wing activist group Advance.

Following last year’s bruising federal election defeat and the Aston by-election loss, senior Liberal Party sources said the voice debate had “galvanised the membership and galvanised the broader base, who may or may not be formal party members”.

With most state Liberal leaders already opposing the voice referendum, the decision to actively support the No campaign allows members and supporters to participate in campaigning without having to provide their details to external organisations.

While the federal Liberal Party and Fair Australia are separate entities, they are “working constructively with the shared goal of defeating Labor’s Voice proposal”.

In NSW, the Liberal Party will separately facilitate Liberal volunteers who want to get involved with either the No or Yes campaigns. Senior party sources said it was expected a large majority would campaign No.

In the battleground state of Tasmania, where Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff and federal MP Bridget Archer support the voice, the state division will help co-­ordinate grassroots members in support of the No campaign.

A No campaign spokesman said having Liberal and National volunteers supporting their ground campaign was a “huge shot in the arm”.

“The No campaign has more than 15,000 volunteers signed up for pre-poll and election day but it’s a big country and we need to cover a lot ground. While we all remain separate entities, the support from extra volunteers will be incredibly valuable,” they said.

A senior Nationals source said the party would have “members campaigning for a No vote in NSW, Victoria and Queensland”.

The new ad campaign launched by Yes23.

“Our members are very motivated to defeat this divisive voice,” he said.

Yes23, which in recent months focused on digital channels while holding back a large portion of its ad-spend war chest, will unleash a final four-week advertising blitz targeting millions of soft and undecided voters. The new ad will run alongside the John Farnham-endorsed You’re the Voice advertisement.

Yes23 director Dean Parkin said the ad tells a “powerful story of the once-in-a-generation opportunity Australians have on 14 October to improve the lives of Indigenous people”.

“This ad explains to Australians why a successful Yes vote is the best shot we have at tackling the entrenched disadvantage Indigenous people live with,” Mr Parkin said. “As more and more Australians start to tune in, we are explaining to the community that this referendum is simply about recognising the first peoples of this nation and listening to them so we can better address longstanding problems.”

At a Yes23 event in Sydney on Friday, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney was recorded telling NSW Premier Chris Minns: “We’ve just finished two weeks of gruelling parliament. To me it’s just unbelievably racist and bullying. The way they have treated me is appalling.”

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman and No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Burney later told The Weekend Australian: “In recent months, my office, social media and email accounts have been ­inundated with racist abuse … ­racism takes its toll”.

“But I will never allow racism to weaken or diminish my resolve to see Australia embrace constitutional recognition through a voice. My message to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are experiencing racism is this: hold your head high, be proud of your identity and who you are.”

After WA Labor senator Pat Dodson told The Australian that a lack of detail had made promoting the voice more difficult, priest and human rights lawyer Frank Brennan said “to vote Yes you don’t have to be convinced it’s all perfect, you don’t have to be convinced the process was perfect”.

“If it is No, it will be the hubris of a new government that said ‘let’s go for broke we don’t need to do the legislative design first, we don’t need to get the opposition parties at the same time’,” he said.