Respected Cape York leader Noel Pearson has called on small business owners to help energise the Voice to parliament referendum to get the “capillaries of the campaign flush with blood”, but rejected calls for large employers, celebrities and sports stars to rush to the rescue.
Asked if the Yes campaign had dumped a plan to put Indigenous sporting stars such as Cathy Freeman, footballer Adam Goodes and tennis legends Evonne Goolagong-Cawley and Ash Barty at the centre of their campaign, Mr Pearson said he was “not aware of that”.
Cape York leader Noel Pearson wants to energise small business and community networks. Dan Peled
“We expect that over the next three months all of those people and all people of goodwill, whether famous or not so famous, will join the Yes campaign,” he said.
Asked by The Australian Financial Review whether large employers that played a crucial role in the same-sex marriage debate should play a greater role, Mr Pearson said that was not the philosophy of the campaign.
“The Australian people have got to lead it and organisations need to follow, and the famous people need to follow them, you know what I mean,” he said.
“I think this has got to be led by ordinary Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and the companies and celebrities and everyone else need to get in behind them, that’s just the philosophy of this campaign.”
Mr Pearson, speaking at an event in Melbourne hosted by consultants 89 Degrees East and Mandala before a small group of start-ups, investors and business leaders, singled out small businesses to help the cause.
“How do you get the capillaries of the campaign flush with blood, you know? It’s gotta be through community organisations, businesses and groups that have networks down into the communities,” he told the Financial Review.
Many major companies have declared they will take an impartial position on the referendum, in contrast to the supportive stance many took for the 2017 marriage equality postal vote.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also accused some of Australia’s largest companies of “craving popularity” and of lacking backbone after Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers and BHP each donated $2 million to the Yes campaign.
“There are a lot of CEOs and chairs who have very different conversations with you in private than what they say publicly,” Mr Dutton said.
Nine Entertainment this month apologised for running an advertisement from Advance Australia that campaigned against the Voice and was criticised as racist. The ad depicted Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney, with his daughter, teal MP Kate Chaney, and leading Voice campaigner Thomas Mayo.
“That’s just part of politics,” Mr Pearson said. “The No campaign feel they have to attack the legitimacy of business involvement in this.”
While Mr Pearson shrugged off the attack on business, he said the vote should transcend politics.
“If you’re a Liberal voter you can vote for the referendum, if you’re a National you can vote for the referendum ... this is a much more profound question than that prosaic question, who gets to be the next PM and whether you want to give Albo a kick up the bum or whatever, that is a question for two years’ time.
“Our campaign is offering the prospect of an inclusive and reconciled Australia and the other mob are promising fear and disunity. The choice is stark.”
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFmci5jb20vcG9saXRpY3MvZmVkZXJhbC9wZWFyc29uLXR1cm5zLXRvLXNtYWxsLWJ1c2luZXNzLXRvLXJlc2N1ZS12b2ljZS0yMDIzMDcxMy1wNWRvMGPSAQA?oc=5
2023-07-13 05:36:00Z
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