Advance Australia urges supporters to help target Labor’s misinformation laws

Advance Australia has revealed Labor’s misinformation laws will be its next target, claiming that its opponents will attempt to use the legislation to ‘silence’ conservative voices.

‘You and I destroyed their divisive agenda … even so, they are ­regrouping’, Advance Australia executive director Matthew ­Sheahan said in the email.

The peak body behind the No campaign for the Indigenous voice to parliament has revealed Labor’s misinformation laws will be its next target, claiming its opponents will attempt to use the legislation to “silence” conser­vative voices.

In an email to supporters, ­Advance Australia said the referendum defeat represented a ­“defence of Australian values” but such values were still under threat.

“You and I destroyed their divisive agenda … even so, they are ­regrouping,” Advance Australia executive director Matthew ­Sheahan said in the email.

“Why do you think they’re already talking about new laws to make misinformation a crime? 

“They think the only way they can win is if they silence their ­opponents.”

Advance Australia was accused by Yes supporters of promoting misinformation during the voice referendum campaign.

The email, seen by The Australian, directs readers to a website where they can sign a petition opposing the legislation and provides a template for a letter to be sent to Labor, Green and teal MPs urging that they “respect our democracy”.

“You know that politicians enforcing their own views as the state-held ‘truth’ is nothing short of being totalitarian and despotic. It’s un-Australian and cannot be allowed,” the template reads.

The email was sent less than a week after the referendum result was called, with more than 60 per cent of the country voting against changing the Constitution to ­enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament.

Anthony Albanese on Friday said while early polling showed the voice was likely to fail, he had been determined to see the process through after promising to enact the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full ahead of the 2022 election.

Mr Sheahan said when politicians labelled content as misinformation or disinformation, “they are really saying ‘You are too ­stupid to make up your own mind’,” invoking comments of voice supporters who criticised the No campaign ahead of the ­referendum.

“They think if you oppose their radical vision of Australia, you’re a dinosaur or a dickhead, as Ray Martin put it,” he said in his email.

According to Advance Australia’s website, more than 30,000 people have signed its ­petition calling on the government to scrap the misinformation laws.

Under draft legislation currently proposed by the Labor government, the Australian Com­muni­cations and Media Authority would be given the powers to penalise digital platforms if they failed to combat misinformation and disinformation.

The government has faced backlash over the legislation from some legal experts, religious groups and the Coalition, who have accused Labor of setting up a “ministry of truth” that could impinge on freedom of speech.

Other concerns include the “broad definition” of harms potentially caused by misinformation that elicited an intervention from ACMA.

The Advance Australia website claimed that if the government decided someone was guilty of misinformation, “they’ll shut you down and hit solid citizens with unfair criminal convictions”.

Labor throughout the campaign for a voice to parliament accused the No camp of peddling misinformation, including in its arguments that the Yes campaign had fundraised up to $100m, which leaders of Yes23 denied.

The No camp also claimed Yes23 was spending at least $3m on advertising in Tasmania and South Australia alone, but later admitted this was an “estimate” on how its advertising funds would be allocated across the country.

Advance Australia’s push for its supporters to rally against the misinformation laws follows key No campaigner Warren Mundine saying they were “dangerous”.