CEOs Spent Millions on the Yes Campaign. A Class on 'Reading the Room' Would Have Been Cheaper!

Campaigners for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament had four times the funds of the opposing No camp at their disposal, and yet still lost the referendum.

Yes activists received $60m from donors compared to just $15m given to promote the No cause. Which just goes to show that money can’t always buy love - not from a woman, and not from middle Australia.

There are some obvious points to raise from all of this.

The first is that Australians don't take kindly to being preached at by the big end of town.

The more money major corporations donated to the Yes campaign, the more Australians realised the Voice was not at all a grassroots movement. Instead, they saw it for what it was, a constitutional change being foisted upon them from on high.

The second lesson is that Australians don’t like major companies spending shareholder money on political campaigns.

If CEOs of publicly listed companies wanted to donate to a political cause, they could have and should have used their own money. God knows their salaries and bonuses are ample enough to afford it.

If ANZ Bank had a spare $2.5m, it should have been distributed to shareholders as a special dividend. Or used to open a branch! Not thrown at a flawed constitutional change.

CEOs spent up big on the referendum, as if they were a Labor Government - splashing around other people’s money.

They did this for no reason other than directorial wokedome, and contrary to their duty as directors.

Here’s a third observation. It’s fascinating that almost all Yes donations were proudly declared, whilst comparatively few No donations were publicly advertised.

Is this not the clearest evidence of virtue signalling yet?

The people who were willing to put their money (I should say other people’s money) behind the Yes campaign appeared to do so for appearances. They clearly thought they were buying attention, recognition and gratitude. Oh, and helping Indigenous people of course! (wink)

Another thought - imagine if the $60m spent on a referendum that was always likely to fail had been spent actually helping disadvantaged Australians!

What a waste!

Here’s a fifth observation. Remember how we were told that the Yes campaign lost because voters had been inundated with misinformation? Er, how could this be, given that the Yes campaign had every resource and financial opportunity at their disposal? It simply doesn’t add up.

And finally, the data shows just how out of touch the leaders of the elitist corporations that donated to the Yes campaign are.

It cannot be comforting to shareholders of major corporations to realise that their CEOs and boards are so disconnected from the thoughts and values of the majority of Australians.

Sixty million dollars spent on the Yes campaign? It would have been so much cheaper just to take a class on reading the room.