Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton ‘deliberately ignored advice to back voice’

A longtime Coalition pollster has backed Noel Pearson’s claim that Scott Morrison and then Peter Dutton disregarded data showing the Indigenous voice was good politics for the ­Liberals.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson says the past 18 months under Labor have been ‘the most forlorn in the history of Indigenous affairs’ with no serious policy or program progress. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

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Longtime Coalition pollster Mark Textor has backed Cape York leader Noel Pearson’s claim that Scott Morrison and then Peter Dutton disregarded data showing the Indigenous voice to parliament was good politics for the ­Liberal Party.

Mr Textor has made his first public remarks about the politics of the Indigenous voice to parliament after Mr Pearson’s excoriating essay linking the Coalition’s historic loss on May 3 to its decision not to tack towards the centre by embracing the voice.

CT Group – the firm Mr Textor co-founded with conservative strategist Lynton Crosby – made waves with its backing of the Indigenous voice in 2023, despite the Coalition moving firmly against it.

The firm’s more than 20-year-long association with the Liberals ended soon after the referendum’s defeat.

After winning five federal elections and multiple state polls with CT Group’s help, the Coalition turned to Freshwater Strategy – which has been largely blamed for giving Mr Dutton incorrect polling and failing to see the Coalition wipe-out last week.

Mr Textor has stayed silent since the referendum, but this weekend said Mr Pearson’s recollections over his polling advice to the Liberal leaders was correct and that the party has “left” him.

“I appreciate Noel’s truth-­telling here … I’ve been unwilling to talk about the campaign because I’m non-Indigenous, but this part (about the polling) is certainly true,” Mr Textor said on LinkedIn.

“To adapt the words of Ronald Reagan, ‘I didn’t leave the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party left me’.”

Mr Pearson wrote in The Australian that the Coalition, having opted for immediate rewards by opposing the Indigenous voice, believed they were campaign geniuses when all they had done was slaughter fish in a barrel because “kicking black fellas is easy”.

Advance Australia – the conservative campaign outfit that played a leading role in defeating the voice – said Mr Pearson was overthinking the election result.

“Mr Pearson has joined the very long list of politicians, pundits and pollsters who suffer from confirmation bias and are desperate to link the federal election results to the referendum,” an Advance Australia spokesman said.

“The reality is far simpler – Australians judge each campaign on its merit.

“We’d just encourage Mr Pearson and his fellow activists to listen to the democratic voice of Australians and put aside their anger for the good of the entire country.”

The Cape York leader said the prediction of Nationals MP turned independent Andrew Gee had come true and the joy of killing the voice in October 2023 was now “ashes in their mouths”.

Aboriginal affairs commentator and No supporter Anthony Dillon, an Indigenous man, said he believed that the Coalition’s election loss was not linked to its decision to go against the Indigenous voice.

“I did disagree fundamentally with Noel Pearson on that,” Mr Dillon told The Australian on Sunday.

“I believe the voice was not a big factor on May 3.”

In his first public comments since the 2023 Yes campaign defeat, Mr Pearson on Friday also likened Anthony Albanese to a “Houdini” who had run from ­Aboriginal policy

Mr Pearson, a veteran of every chapter in Indigenous policy since Mabo, says the past 18 months under Labor have been “the most forlorn in the history of Indigenous affairs” with no serious policy or program progress.

He also said the government and the public service had been frozen by “extreme paranoia” over making any moves in Indigenous policy that might be attacked by No campaign leader and recent Liberal Party recruit Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Mr Pearson labelled the opposition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman – who left the ­Nationals last week to join the Liberals and run on a joint leadership ticket with former Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor – a “one trick pony” exposed during the Coalition’s election disaster.

Uluru Youth Dialogue co-chair Allira Davis on Sunday accused the Liberal Party of “punching down” on Indigenous Australians during the election campaign.

“The Liberal Party thinks it can return to office by prosecuting over and over again culture wars and woke wars and really, it’s a ghost of a fight,” Ms Davis said.

“Australians voted for a different type of politics, one that isn’t negative and mean-spirited and constantly punching down on the most vulnerable in the Australian community.

“That’s exhausting and I know many young Australians including mob are tired of it.

“That’s why so few Australians voted for the LNP.

“There’s nothing the LNP offers that gives most Aussies, especially First Nations people, any hope for the future or any reason to smile.”