The Voice to Parliament No campaign has provided a new rallying cry to its supporters, showing that they will now set their sights on the government’s disinformation law.
In the wake of the open letter from indigenous leaders breaking a week-long vow of silence after the defeat, details have emerged about the message of the No campaign itself.
“Australia has overwhelmingly rejected division. The Yes campaign only convinced 39 percent,” said Matthew Sheahan, executive director of Advance.
‘That’s a resounding defeat in anyone’s books.
Advance was behind the Fair Australia No campaign, which joined forces with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine to suppress the Voice.
Advance was the driving force behind the Fair Australia No campaign, which joined forces with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine to suppress the vote
‘No wonder they’ve been in mourning for a week. You and I destroyed their divisive agenda.
“Australia has given them a flogging that will stick for decades, believe me.”
READ MORE: What Yes leaders really mean by open letters criticizing No voters
But Mr Sheahan warned that the Yes camp is “regrouping”.
“Why do you think they’re already talking about new laws to make ‘misinformation’ a crime?”
A disinformation bill would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) stronger powers to deal with “content that is false, misleading or deceptive”.
“Australia has overwhelmingly rejected division. The Yes campaign only convinced 39 percent,” said Matthew Sheahan, executive director of Advance
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland described these new powers, which include information gathering and record keeping, as a means to “create transparency around digital platforms’ efforts to respond to disinformation and misinformation.”
The Human Rights Commission and the Australian Law Council are among those concerned about the scope of powers the bill would provide.
Mr Sheahan called on the Labor Party, Greens and Teal Independents to ‘line up… to call for new laws that will criminalize and police what you say’.
“They think the only way they can win is if they silence their opponents. But you and I are already leading the way.
“ADVANCE is currently campaigning on this next front. Every time they shout ‘disinformation, disinformation’ they are really saying: ‘you are too stupid to make up your own mind’.
“They think if you oppose their radical vision of Australia you are ‘a dinosaur or ad**khead’, as Ray Martin put it.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland described these new powers, which include information gathering and record keeping, as a means to “create transparency around digital platforms’ efforts to respond to disinformation and disinformation”
“They just can’t accept that Australians thought it was a bad idea to divide us by race in our national regulations.”
Mr Sheahan’s message to supporters came as the Yes campaign group, the Uluru Dialogues, shared an open letter claiming to be ‘the collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organizations who supported Yes’.
“The truth is that the majority of Australians, knowingly or unknowingly, have committed a shameful act, and nothing positive can be interpreted from it. We needed the truth to be told to the Australian people,” the letter said.
This appears to be a reference to the next phase of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – which calls for truth-telling through a Makarrata Commission.
The Makarrata Commission, which would combine treaty-making ambitions with truth-telling, was considered the ‘culmination point of the agenda’ of the Uluru Declaration, of which a constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament was only part one used to be.
The statement (pictured) said indigenous leaders will continue to lobby for a vote despite the comprehensive defeat in the referendum
The letter called for schoolchildren to be educated about the struggles of Indigenous Australians, saying a lack of knowledge and racism contributed to the referendum’s defeat.
“That so many Australian people believe there is no race or division over race in the current Australian Constitution speaks to the need for better education about Australian history and better citizenship education,” the statement said.
In a direct challenge to non-Indigenous Australians, the letter read: “Australia is our country. We accept that the majority of Australians have rejected recognition in the Australian Constitution.
‘We will not accept for a moment that this country is not ours. Always been. Always will be.
“It is the legitimacy of the non-indigenous occupation in this country that requires recognition, not the other way around. Our sovereignty has never been ceded.”