Voice to Parliament: Warren Mundine rips into Yes campaign backflip after celebrities ditched – Warren Mundine has slammed the ‘Yes’ campaign after it emerged they would ditch celebrities endorsements and rely on everyday Australian using ‘scripts’ to win voters.
Polling is showing support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament plummeting and in danger of being voted down.
To revamp the Yes campaign, it was revealed on Sunday that a more grassroots approach will be adopted to win over voters by tugging at their emotions.
Voice to Parliament: Warren Mundine rips into Yes campaign backflip after celebrities ditched
The campaign had intended to use high-profile Indigenous stars to promote the cause, but activists have since switched their approach over concerns everyday Aussies will be turned off because they ‘don’t like being spoken down to’.
Instead, Yes23 campaigners have been handed a nine-page ‘how-to’ guide, obtained by Daily Mail Australia, outlining 14 scenarios for tough conversations with voters and the best way to win their support.
‘That’s how pathetic they really are,’ leading No campaign advocate Warren Mundine told Daily Mail Australia.
Warren Mundine has slammed the ‘Yes’ campaign after it emerged they would ditch celebrities endorsements and rely on everyday Australian using ‘scripts’ to win voters
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the vote as a ‘modest request from the heart’ and an ‘offer’ he hopes all Australians will embrace
‘I don’t need a script to talk to ordinary Australians to listen to ordinary Australians, I am an ordinary Australian myself.
‘I don’t have to go to a course to learn about ordinary Australians or to learn how to talk to Australians. I do that 24/7.’
Mr Mundine said the scripts revealed how ‘out-of-touch’ the Yes campaigners are with the majority of Australians.
‘They are going to turn up with an A4 piece of paper and say, ‘I just want to talk to you as my fellow Australians’,’ he said.
‘Give me a break, these blokes are quite frankly clowns.’
The former ALP President turned LNP member said appealing to ordinary Aussies was always the approach of the No campaign, in contrast to the star-studded Yes effort which was planned to be led by Indigenous sports stars such as Cathy Freeman and Adam Goodes.
Olympian athlete Cathy Freeman has been one of the Indigenous stars used to promote the Yes campaign
AFL legend Adam Goodes was also lined up to be part of the Yes campaign
‘It just shows how heaps of money and celebrities can’t buy a campaign,’ Mr Mudine said.
‘We did our thing, we’ve always believed in the Australian people and trusted them and not calling them names and not putting crap on them.
‘Maybe this could be a start for them to learn how great ordinary Australians are and how great this country is.
‘How it is not a racist country, as much as they can spit this out to us. We are the most liberty and freedom-loving country in the world.’
The Voice referendum will be held between October and December, asking the Australian public whether an Indigenous advisory body’ should be established and if First Nation’s People should be enshrined in the Constitution.
Many thousands turned out for rallies nationwide on Sunday to back the Yes vote, with organisers hoping momentum will build despite recent polls showing a decline.
The most recent Newspoll revealed support the Voice sliding to 43 per cent with just two states are tracking to vote yes.
A referendum needs a mandate from the majority of people in the majority of states to pass.
A nine-page ‘how-to’ guide has been published offering 14 scenarios and the best ways to handle them in an attempt to equip Yes voters with all the information they need to sway votes. Pictured: Question and answer samples in the guide
Many thousands turned out for rallies nationwide on Sunday to back the Yes vote, with organisers hoping momentum will build despite recent polls showing a decline (A rally in Sydney is pictured)
The Yes23 campaign said ‘people you know – whether friends or family, people at work, your church, your local sporting club will be far more influenced by a conversation with you about this than anything they see or hear from a third party’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the vote as a ‘modest request from the heart’ and an ‘offer’ he hopes all Australians will embrace.
But some Indigenous Australians such as Mr Mundine oppose the move, calling it a symbolic exercise that will not benefit actually First Nation’s People in remote area.
The lack of detail surrounding the parliamentary advisory body has also been called into question.
To combat this, Yes23 volunteers are told to emphasise creating an emotional connection with voters.
They are instructed to have ‘belief in your own support’ – rather than focusing on having all the answers or engaging in an ‘intellectual debate’.
The scripted Yes campaign answers are focused on promoting the Voice as a ‘stepping stone on the path to justice’ that will be above the ‘usual partisan politics’ and is an ‘important practical step’.
Mr Mundine alluded to inconsistencies by some Voice advocates including the prominent signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart Thomas Mayo as a major sticking point.
Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo with a volunteer during a campaign event, above. Guides handed to Yes campaigners to win over No and undecided voters have been revealed
The unionist has previously described life after a Voice to Parliament is introduced – including reparations for Indigenous people, ‘rent’ being paid to live on Australian land and the abolishment of ‘harmful colonial institutions’.
Mr Mayo also stated in newly unearthed tweets from 2018 and 2021, the parliamentary advisory body could be used to ‘punish’ politicians. But he has since retracted the comments.
‘They are making it up on the run,’ Mr Mundine said.
‘They change their mind every day or week. They are saying ‘this is just a mild small change to the Constitution’ and the next day they say ‘it will have a say on everything that happens to this country’.
‘The next day they are back again saying ‘don’t be scared about it’ and the next day they are saying we are going to ‘punish politicians’.
‘They’ve exposed themselves with their hypocrisy and their lies.’
Supporters hold placards during a Yes 23 community event in support of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, in Sydney, Sunday, July 2, 2023
