Fresh from their successful campaign to sink Indigenous Voice into parliament, conservative activist group Advance is now taking aim at the Albanian government.
In a message to the group’s supporters, former executive director Matthew Sheahan said the group wanted to turn Victoria’s upcoming Dunkley by-election into “a referendum on the Prime Minister”.
“It will be a vote on the dismal record of his first two years in office,” Sheahan wrote.
“If we convince voters in this one seat to put Labor in last place on March 2, the pressure on Anthony Albanese will increase in ways he cannot imagine.”
The key issues Advance wants Dunkley voters to focus on are “the cost of living, broken promises, housing and rental costs.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese campaigned extensively for The Voice, but after the referendum defeat he denied that this was a loss for him personally
“The people of Dunkley are Aussies everywhere,” Sheahan writes.
“They have been under pressure from Albo’s government just like you.
‘You and I know they are fed up with the Labour/Green/Teal experiment.
“If we can convince them to put Labor last, we’ll be one step closer to ending it.”
Mr Sheahan told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday he wanted to send a message to Canberra.
“Australians have had enough – they have been crushed by Labor and the cost of living crisis,” he said.
‘The by-elections will not change the government but they can send a message and we will encourage all voters to send a message to the Prime Minister and Labor by putting Labor last.’
Progress will also be made to remind voters of Labour’s woes in tackling the release of foreign-born lawbreakers freed by a High Court ruling against indefinite detention for those who could not be deported.
Seven of the 148 people released after the November verdict have since been arrested for alleged new crimes and violating their conditions of release.
To get their message across, Advance will use social media advertising, sponsorship of ad vehicles in the electorate, live calls to voters and be visible on Election Day.
Advance, which changed its name from Advance Australia in May, is prepared to donate $200,000 to Dunkley of the $5.1 million in donations the group received last year.
It was revealed that a number of wealthy businessmen supported Advance in the AEC revelations released last week.
The biggest donor was Perth car dealer Brian Anderson, who gave Advance a whopping $1 million.
Former Shark Tank judge and technology investor Steve Baxter gave the organization $20,000, while Sam Kennard of Kennards Self Storage donated $115,000.
Bakers Delight founder Roger Gillespie donated $20,000 and Marcus Blackmore, the son of the founder of natural health supplement giant Blackmores, also donated $25,000 and has been an outspoken critic of The Voice.
Melbourne Storm NRL club director and transport businessman Brett Ralph also donated $50,000 to Advance.
The war chest allowed Advance to help lead the successful ‘No’ campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which was convincingly defeated in the October referendum.
Advance provided most of the resources for the successful campaign against the Voice (photo of Voice supporters on the night of the referendum)
Despite its relatively low profile, Advance was forced to defend a cartoon it placed as a full-page newspaper advertisement in the Australian Financial Review against accusations that it contained a racist image of leading Voice lawyer Thomas Mayo.
Mr Mayo was drawn as a boy wearing ragged, torn pauper-like shorts and no socks, eagerly reaching for a wad of cash labeled “$2 million” from Wesfarmer’s chair and Yes23 campaign director Michael Chaney.
Politicians who supported the Yes vote, including former NSW Liberal Treasurer Matt Kean, federal Liberal MP Bridget Archer, Labor MP Alicia Payne and federal Teals Zali Steggall, Monique Ryan and Sophie Scamps, branded the cartoon “racist”.
Some of the Advance advertising material to be used in the Victorian seat of Dunkley ahead of the upcoming by-election
But Advance Australia denied the cartoon was a stereotype or figure of speech depicting Indigenous Australians as childish or beggars.
“We completely reject the premise that this cartoon is racist,” an Advance spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It is a parody of the close relationship between Teal politicians, wealthy corporate elites and the radical activists of the Yes campaign, such as Thomas Mayo.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has campaigned extensively for The Voice but has since denied that the defeat was a loss for him personally.
“It was never about politicians, it was actually about the most disadvantaged people in our society,” Albanese said of the failed referendum in December.
Advance was founded in 2018 by former Liberal staffer Gerard Benedet as a counterbalance to the left-wing group GetUp!.
It has GetUp! electoral strategy of not advocating for a party, but rather running largely negative advertisements against their political opponents, pushing voters to put them last.
Advance was forced to deny allegations that this Voice No vote newspaper ad was a racist depiction of Yes23 activist Thomas Mayo
The Dunkley by-election on March 2 was triggered by the death from cancer of former sitting MP Peta Murphy.
Labor is holding on to a margin of 6.3 per cent, with the seat extending to affluent areas of the Mornington Peninsula, as well as high-mortgage Melbourne suburbs such as Carrum Downs, Langwarrin and Frankston.