Voting referendum: Read the confrontational letter from a Yes supporter with a sign in her front garden found in her mailbox from a neighbor
Voting referendum: Read the confrontational letter from a Yes supporter with a sign in her front garden found in her mailbox from a neighbor
A woman with a Vote Yes on the Indigenous Voice referendum sign in her front garden has been the target of an anonymous conspiracy theory letter calling her a ‘communist’.
The typed letter starts with ‘Dear neighbor’, but then immediately switches to swearing.
The woman in Byron Bay in northern NSW was told to move to China because she was a ‘supporter of the COMMUNIST AGENDA’, in the letter which was often cut into random capital letters.
The writer said the woman’s views were shaped by “media and government propaganda and disinformation or perhaps financial gain.”
What ‘financial gain’ the woman might gain from voting ‘Yes’ was not made clear, but the writer said: ‘Either way, your children and grandchildren will be the ones to suffer under this TOTALITARIAN SYSTEM’.
A woman with a Vote Yes in the Indigenous Voice referendum sign in her front garden has become the target of an anonymous conspiracy theory letter (pictured) calling her a ‘communist’
A family with a ‘Vote Yes’ sign on their lawn (pictured) has become the target of vile racist abuse for showing support for an Indigenous voice to Parliament
The letter then goes on to suggest videos the woman should watch on YouTube, including one titled “The Voice Is A Communist Plot – The Secret Plan EXPOSED…!!!!”
While the letter was unexpected and shocking, it is far from the worst correspondence sent to people with Vote Yes signs on their property.
Dr. Richard Hodge found a letter in the letterbox of his home in Sunbury, north-west Melbourne, on Monday.
It was filled with vile racist comments in which Dr. Hodge was called a ‘fake c**n’ and ‘virtue signaler’ before making several insults at Indigenous Australians.
“What do the A*** do for Australia other than suck $34 billion out of the Australian taxpayer every year,” it said.
Dr. Hodge was shocked to realize the letter had been sent from the Brisbane suburb of Northgate, 1,800km from his home.
“So this is an organized campaign,” the former Australian Defense Force scientist told Daily Mail Australia.
“This isn’t some upstart who’s angry in the neighborhood.”
He believes a disgruntled local told someone in Queensland he had put up a Vote Yes sign, which led to the disturbing letter being sent to his home.
The letter was postmarked September 13, a week after Dr. Hodge put up the sign.
He said the letter made him feel like he had been “kicked in the guts” and compared it to how he felt years ago when his house was broken into.
“Things were being destroyed in the house at the time, and that empty feeling was the only other time I’ve felt like that,” Dr. Hodge said.
“But this was actually worse because of the despicable nature of the abuse.”
A video has also emerged online of a man storming into a Yes supporters meeting and demanding that organizers change their minds about the referendum.
Bradley Beaven filmed himself entering the meeting venue in Albury in southern NSW before being met in a corridor by a female campaigner.
When the organizers said it was a private meeting and threatened to call the police, he threatened to call the police.
Mr Beaven had also harassed Yes23 campaigners in Melbourne the week before.
In Albury, which shares a border town with Wodonga in Victoria, Mr Beaven invited Yes voters to ‘call the police’.
Mr Beaven has confronted Yes23 campaigners before, most recently filming himself in Melbourne’s CBD last week doing the same
“Because you should be arrested and charged with treason against the people of this country.”
As he walked towards the exit, he started shouting ‘Vote No’ and ‘You traitors to this damn country’.
In Melbourne he called a Yes campaigner a “traitorous bloody dog”.
The referendum to enshrine Indigenous voices in Parliament in the Australian Constitution will be held in just over three weeks, on October 14.
READ MORE: Anthony Albanese’s focus on The Voice to Parliament dips as energy bills rise
The Prime Minister has been criticized for focusing on the indigenous voice in Parliament as energy bills skyrocket, labeling the referendum as ‘the great distraction’.
Combined gas and electricity bills have reached record highs, with thousands of families in suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria now paying up to $800 more and spending as much as $4,400 a year to keep the lights on in their homes, according to St Vincent de Paul The society’s latest rate tracker report.
Anthony Albanese (pictured) accused of focusing on the Voice referendum rather than issues affecting ordinary Aussies