Indigenous voice to parliament: Nine apologises for ‘racist’ vote ad

Nine apologises for publishing an ad against the voice that depicted Indigenous man Thomas Mayo appearing to shuffle or dance as he received a handout.

Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney. Picture: Colin Murty

Nine has apologised for publishing an advertisement against the Indigenous voice to parliament that depicted Indigenous man Thomas Mayo appearing to shuffle or dance as he received a handout from Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney.

The full-page cartoon in the Australian Financial Review, authorised by Advance Australia, showed Mr Chaney’s 48-year-old daughter Kate Chaney sitting on his lap wearing pigtails in her hair, a tiara and ballet pointe shoes.

Ms Chaney is an independent MP who supports the voice.

NSW state Liberal MP Matt Kean was among critics of the advertisement on Thursday, accusing the No campaign of evoking racist tropes from the Jim Crow era.

The cartoon showed a seated Mr Chaney extending his hand to Mr Mayo while holding a bundle of cash with two tags on it – one tag carried the Wesfarmers logo, the other was labelled $2m.

Wesfarmers recently announced it had donated $2m to the Yes23 campaign via a charity that backs it, Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition. Mr Chaney and Mr Mayo are both directors of Yes23.

Other corporates to donate to the Yes23 include Rio Tinto and BHP, which have each given $2m.

In March, Yes23 began its campaign with $5m from the charitable Ramsay Foundation.

On Thursday, Advance Australia said its donors were confidential. Under electoral laws, it will be required to reveal them but not until after the referendum.

“The political advertisement about the voice referendum placed into today’s Financial Review should not have run and we apologise for that,” a spokesman for Nine said. “We want to encourage a mature debate from both sides and avoid personal and/or inappropriate attacks.”

Some of the outrage over the cartoon was about the characterisation of Mr Mayo. His raised leg and the angles of his arms suggested movement that Mr Kean linked directly to the racist parodies of black Americans from the era when Jump Jim Crow was a popular song and dance performed by white minstrel Thomas Dartmouth Rice.

The performance – said to be modelled on a “crippled Negro” – exploited stereotyped speech, movement, and physical features attributed to black people to mock them. Jim Crow ultimately became a shorthand term for the mores around segregation.

“The racist trope of Thomas Mayo in today’s full-page AFR ad has no place in Australian politics,” Mr Kean tweeted. “It’s a throwback to the Jim Crow era of the Deep South. The No campaign has every right to be heard but it can do better than this.”

Ms Chaney on Thursday said it was disappointing “to see the No campaign stooping to personal and racist attacks when Australians are more interested in learning the facts about the voice and how it can contribute to Closing the Gap”.

“Ultimately, I think people will vote based on what is fair and useful, not based on fear and hate,” she said.

Advance Australia did not resile from the advertisement on Thursday. “Matt Kean can keep his elitist Sydney views to himself, Lisa Wilkinson, and Peter Fitz­Simons,” the organisation’s media team said.