Shark Tank judge Steve Baxter unleashes Indigenous Voice before Parliament, urging Australians to vote No
- Steve Baxter criticizes the reasons for voting Yes
- Vocal Shark Tank Investor No Supporter
Shark Tank Australia investor Steve Baxter has been unapologetically vocal about why he thinks people should vote No in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
The 52-year-old took to Twitter earlier this month to argue that the Yes23 campaign is a “sheet of lies, half-truths and fantasy.”
The tirade was in response to a post containing an explanation of what the advisory body would do and eight reasons why Australians should vote Yes.
The list included things like the Voice would be empowering, accountable and transparent, elected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and would have no veto power.
Shark Tank Australia investor Steve Baxter (pictured) has criticized the Voice proposal and the Yes campaign as being a “sheet of lies, half-truths and fantasy”.
But the investor, who has changed his Twitter name to include the hashtag ‘voteno’, deleted the list, saying it was ‘made up’.
‘A sheet of lies, half truths and fantasy. Voice is the fruit of the poisonous tree because it gives access to politics based on race,” Baxter said.
In response, he shared his thoughts on each of the eight points.
Baxter said the claim that the advisory body would be elected by indigenous peoples would be decided by parliament “so it will be negotiated through government processes.”
He also said that the claim that the Voice would be empowering and inclusive was a ‘fantasy’.
“The Voice will exercise power through the courts to ensure that its right to provide advice is given due weight in administrative law to be considered, creating an opportunity for procedural delays to provide leverage,” it added.
It is not the only time that the technological entrepreneur has spoken out about the Voice and indigenous feelings.
In a tweet shared Thursday, he described an acknowledgment of Welcome to the Country as “bulls**t.”
‘I just went through another bull**t welcome to the country. The guy who delivered it was pretty funny, but it was 3 times the length of the anthem. And in the end, the divisive little person recommended that we all watch a partial SBS doc about border wars, about colonization or something like that,” she said.
Australians will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in a referendum to be held sometime between October and December this year on enshrining an indigenous advisory body to Parliament in the Constitution.
It comes as two recently conducted Resolve Political Monitor polls for The Sydney Morning Herald it showed that only 48 percent of voters in Australia would vote for Voice, while 52 percent said they would vote against it.
Going state by state, the poll data shows that support in New South Wales has dropped from 53 per cent supporting Voice to Parliament in May-June this year to 49 per cent in June-July, moving from the fields Yes to No.
Mr Baxter has urged Australians to vote No in the referendum expected to be announced between October and December.
Over the same period, in Victoria, which had the strongest support for the advisory body, the numbers also dropped from 56 percent saying they would vote Yes to 52 percent.
According to the poll, most of the remaining states are also in the No field with Queensland at 42 per cent supporting Voice and South Australia and Western Australia at 49 per cent.
Tasmania currently appears to be leading the Yes field with 54 per cent of respondents saying they would vote in favor of the amendment to the Constitution.
For a referendum to pass, it must have the support of a majority of the national vote and also a majority of voters in a majority of states.
For the referendum to pass, you need to get a majority of yes votes not just nationally but in every state in a majority of states.
