While those who opposed the Yes vote in the referendum for an indigenous voice in Parliament were ignored by corporate Australia, who wasted millions on the failed proposal, the No campaign still had the support of some very rich
Donation disclosures by the Australian Electoral Commission show that while a list of blue-chip companies filled the Yes campaign’s coffers with sums of between $1 million and $2 million, No supporters donated comparatively modest amounts.
Retired fund manager Simon Fenwick donated $750,000 to help defeat Indigenous Voice in Parliament.
The largest donation made to Australians for Unity, the referendum fundraising arm of lobby group Advance, was $800,000 in eight lots of $100,000 by The B Macfie Family Foundation.
The foundation’s creator, Bryant Macfie, has been described as a Perth-based doctor and philanthropist who donates heavily to conservative advocacy groups such as the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
While he largely avoids the spotlight, Dr Macfie gave a lecture in 2008 to commemorate his controversial funding of joint climate research by the IPA and the University of Queensland.
“Today we are faced with a new religion known as environmental activism, which has insinuated itself into some aspects of science,” he said.
Dr. Macfie’s wealth was previously invested in mining.
For several years it was listed as a major shareholder in Perth-based Strike Resources, which has iron ore and lithium projects in Australia and South America.
Despite owning 800,000 shares, or more than 6 per cent of the company in 2010, Dr Macfie is no longer listed as a major shareholder.
A major donor to the No campaign, much less publicity-shy, was retired fund manager Simon Fenwick, who donated $750,000 to Fair Australia, which is also linked to Advance.
Fenwick worked as an investment banker in London and New York before co-founding fund manager International Value Advisers, which at its peak had around $20 billion on its books.
Marius Kloppers, a former BHP boss who left the mining company with a $75.2 million golden handshake in 2013, contributed $100,000 to fight the Voice.
The 53-year-old, whose net worth is estimated at $50 million, now lives in a $9 million mansion in the exclusive Sydney north shore suburb of Mosman and sits on the IPA board of directors. .
He said The Australian On Wednesday he entered the Voice fray because he feared the creation of “a permanent industry of complaints,” which he said he had seen in the United States.
He also attacked Australian businesses for their slavish support of the Yes case.
‘How is it possible that so many CEOs read the temperature (at the Voice) so badly?’ she asked.
‘What gives them the right to think they speak for shareholders, customers and staff? I would say it’s arrogance.”
Fenwick accused the media of double standards by treating donations made to progressive causes by people like tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes differently from those made to right-wing organizations or activists.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer spent $1.93 million on advertising opposing The Voice before the referendum.
‘Mike Cannon-Brookes is willing to donate to fashion causes. He finds little or no reaction in most of the mainstream media,” stated Mr Fenwick.
“However, if you donate to conservative causes, there is an aggressive reaction and progressives are very aggressive and clever in attacking this.”
Kennards Self Storage founder Sam Kennard, who is involved with the Libertarian Party, donated $115,000 to fight the Voice through his company Siesta Holdings.
“The Voice is not just a grand gesture,” Kennard wrote on LinkedIn.
‘It is a huge and expensive new bureaucracy. Aboriginal people need less bureaucracy, not more.”
In February, the American financial media Forbes estimated that Sam Kennard and his brothers Walter and James have a combined wealth of $1.87 billion.
Marcus Blackmore, who donated $35,000, also made public his opposition to the Voice before the October 14 referendum.
Tech investor and former Shark Tank judge Steve Baxter donated $20,000 to fight the Voice
Blackmore said he would listen to prominent Indigenous senator Jacinta Napijinpa Price, leader of the No Defend movement.
‘If Jacinta tells me that I should vote no, I will vote no. Obviously she knows a lot more than I do about Aboriginal issues,” she told The Australian Financial Review.
Vitamin and health supplement maker Blackmores Group, founded by Blackmore’s father Maurice, distanced itself from reports that he had sold his shares in the company and did not work there.
Marius Kloppers, a former BHP boss who left the mining company with a $75.2 million golden handshake in 2013, contributed $100,000 to fight The Voice.
Trevor St Baker, a businessman with interests in power plants and fuel supply, and an estimated net worth of $1.22 billion, donated $50,000 through his company St Baker Enterprises.
Leading No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine mobilized those who opposed The Voice last year.
Former Shark Tank judge and serial technology investor Steve Baxter contributed $20,000 to Advance, as did Bakers Delight founder Roger Gillespie.
Aside from the main No campaign groups, mining magnate Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy company spent $1.93 million on advertising against the Voice, according to its AEC disclosure.
In total, the $55 million spent by the main Yes campaign groups, which received huge donations from the big four banks, major mining companies and retail giants such as Woolworths and Wesfarmers, dwarfed the $12 million outlay of the case of No.
This is independent of the money spent by political parties, unions, social groups and local governments that promote the Yes vote.