Australia votes no to the voice: Michael Freelander, Labor MPs criticise ‘inner-city’ Yes campaign focus

While Labor MPs are rallying behind Anthony Albanese following the resounding loss, some say there were tactical errors and one killer blow.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, with veteran boradcaster Ray Martin, at The West Says Yes event in Marrickville in September. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Labor MPs have hit out at the Yes campaign for failing to win over outer suburban and regional electorates while being too focused on “inner-city elites”, but say the lack of bipartisanship was the killer blow for the voice referendum.

The day after a resounding defeat of the Albanese government’s and Indigenous leaders’ proposal to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament in the Constitution, Labor MPs conceded they had believed for months the referendum would be defeated as emphatically as 60-40 or 65-35.

Most government MPs The Australian spoke to on Sunday believed there would be no ramifications for Anthony Albanese who, while extremely disappointed at the result, had shown he carried through with his election commitment.

Labor MP Mike Freelander, whose electorate of Macarthur is in southwestern Sydney and rejected the voice, cautioned the government was out of touch with outer suburban seats and the Yes campaign had been appealing to Australians in the inner-city.

“The campaign was mainly focused on the inner-city and inner-city elites in particular, people were in an echo chamber and having big inner-city rallies totally misses the point,” Mr Freelander told The Australian.

“The idea that the campaign was supposed to be apolitical and run by a separate group from the government was crazy because you’ve got a group of people trying to run what was essentially a political campaign with no campaigning experience. The polls have been going down for months and months and yet people were still campaigning to the elites and feeling very good about it without actually looking at what was happening.”

Voters angry

Mr Freelander said his constituents were angry the government had failed to address concerns around infrastructure, health and housing and felt Labor had been distracted by the voice referendum.

Another Labor MP agreed the government had been too distracted by the referendum while Australians living in suburban and rural areas were struggling with cost-of-living problems, insisting the Prime Minister should have pursued less divisive constitutional recognition without a voice.

They also said Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney had to take some responsibility for the failure and must reflect on the role she played, while another colleague believed Ms Burney should resign and suggested Malarndirri McCarthy as a potential replacement.

The MP said Mr Albanese’s handling of the campaign was subpar and full of tactical errors, with very little transparency around the Prime Minister’s referendum strategy within the caucus.

“Yes we shouted in the inner-city but we got smoked in the suburbs and peri-urban areas,” an MP said.

One Labor MP said the voice referendum was rejected because the government had failed to provide enough detail on how it would work, noting the failure was “not a big surprise” but the size of the loss was larger than many in Labor expected.

Queensland Labor MP Graham Perrett, whose seat of Moreton swung from Yes to No late on Sunday as votes were still being counted, said in hindsight supporters of the voice could have workshopped how negative the No campaign would be.

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“We do hope and the future very well but the dark arts take a certain view of the world and I guess we didn’t workshop that,” he said.

“History tells us that change is hard but believing in the nation’s better angels once the Nationals and Liberals and One Nation and Lidia Thorpe combined is nothing to be regretted.”

Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres said the referendum’s failure would not weaken Anthony Albanese’s leadership, saying “you don’t win everything”.

“I don’t have a predetermined view on how we go forward (with reconciliation) but it is time to listen to the views of colleagues, in particular Linda and First Nations people,” he said.

“We just had a rejection, it’s time to take stock. It’s clearly not hard in Australia to knock over a referendum with a very negative (No) campaign.”