Text by Jacinta Price: Politician shouts out a sneaky trick message that all Australia is talking about
An independent MP has called on the Voice No campaign to bombard voters with text messages from Jacinta Price, claiming they contain a link that ‘collects data’ for political parties.
The texts, which urge recipients to vote against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, were sent on Tuesday and sparked a massive response on social media from Voice opponents and supporters.
Liberal Party senator and campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is named as the sender of the message.
“Hi, this is Jacinta Price. The referendum is on October 14,” the text reads.
‘The Voice is risky, unknown and divisive. Do not you know? Say no.’
It then contains a link for those who wish to vote by post.
The Voice to Parliament No campaign is under fire after bombarding voters with text messages purporting to be from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured)
The link takes voters to a website sponsored by the Federal Coalition. It asks for voters’ names, address, email address, mobile phone number, date of birth and the reason why they should vote by post.
The website is authorized by the Federal Director of the Liberal Party of Australia, Andrew Hirst.
Teal MP Allegra Spender condemned the text in a fiery post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, claiming the voice ad is a data harvesting ploy.
“We are being bombarded with spam texts and messages claiming to get votes for The Voice,” she wrote.
‘These are Liberal Party advertisements to collect your personal information. For a real postal vote, go to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).”
The text message urged recipients to vote no in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum
The message included a link for those who wanted to vote by mail. It leads to a Liberal Party-hosted website designed to collect people’s data
“The crossbench is working on electoral reforms to prevent political parties from collecting your data and spamming you, but the major parties will not support these changes.”
Others also went to X to complain about the campaign ads.
“Tell Jacinta Price to please stop texting me,” one user wrote.
‘Dear Senator. Please do not send me unsolicited text messages about the Voice or any other topic unless I have a right of reply. Kind of like a voice,” another commented.
The AEC has issued a statement on the matter following a number of questions about the messages, including from this publication.
“We are receiving some questions about campaign text messages received today,” it said.
Independent MP Allegra Spender (pictured) condemned the Liberal Party over its text message ad campaign in a fiery post to X
“They are legal, political parties do not receive phone numbers from AEC and today’s message appears to contain the required authorization statement via the link in the message.”
The AEC explained that the distribution of campaign text messages was permitted as it did not contravene the laws of the Electoral Act or the Referendum Act.
In addition, political parties are also exempt from the Spam Act and the Do Not Call Act.
“The AEC does not make voters’ telephone numbers public. “The AEC has no knowledge of where or how a registered political party obtains voters’ telephone numbers,” the AEC added.
Campaign group Fair Australia, which is led by Ms Price, told Daily Mail Australia they were not involved in the advertising campaign.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Price for comment. The Voice to Parliament referendum will take place on October 14.