Aboriginal activist says her words used out of context in anti-Voice campaign

^{By Renee Davidson and Sonam Thomas}

An advertising campaign on Facebook against the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament contains quotes from an Indigenous rights activist who says her words have been used out of context to give the impression that she is opposed to the Voice, when in fact she is undecided on her position on the referendum. 

The campaign, The Voice is Not Enough, is authorised by conservative lobby group Advance Australia and reportedly targets the so-called “progressive no” vote. Advance Australia is also behind Fair Australia, the anti-Voice group spearheaded by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the Opposition Indigenous Australians minister. 

Since May 18, the Not Enough campaign has placed 60 Facebook ads showcasing prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists, writers, academics and politicians who have critiqued the notion of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

But not all of those featured in the campaign are on board. 

Social commentator and Arrente woman Celeste Liddle told RMIT FactLab that her quotes had been used without context in Facebook ads and posts, and that she did not support the Not Enough campaign.

Six ads quote from an article titled 'Voices beyond Yes or No' that Ms Liddle wrote for Eureka Street and that was republished on the online site Green Left. The ads quote Ms Liddle as saying: “Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was an idea that initially came from the conservative side of politics. 

“Yet, as somebody who has been engaged in Indigenous movements for a long time, who has been additionally engaged in other social justice movements, and who has more than a little political knowledge, I am unconvinced.”

But the ad does not include the next line from her article: “This is not to say that I am committed to a ‘no’ vote either.”

In these paragraphs in her article, Ms Liddle’s reference to being “unconvinced” relate to the fact that she is unconvinced that constitutional recognition would “be undoing a great wrong”, but that did not mean she was committed to voting no.

Ms Liddle told FactLab she was unaware that her quotes had been used in the Not Enough campaign, which “in no way, shape or form actually represent[s] what it was that I was talking about in my article”.

Asked for her position on the Voice, she said: “I’m undecided.”

“They have attempted to use my views to pursue and enforce their deeply flawed, and racially ignorant, No campaign, when clearly, my piece cannot be remotely mistaken to be in line with this," she said.

She said her quotes were being used to “misinform the Australian public”.

Advance Australia defended the approach of its Not Enough campaign, telling FactLab in an email,  “We’ve done nothing more than quote statements made in the public square and in context.”

Advance Australia said Ms Liddle and others had made public statements about an issue that was the topic of major debate in Australia. “The idea that we can’t quote them because they do not like us is ridiculous [and] potentially a restriction of political expression,” said the email that was signed “ADVANCE Media”.

“In the case of Celeste Liddle, we literally used her words ‘I am unconvinced’. We used 57 words directly attributable to Ms Liddle. How could this possibly be considered as anything other than rigorously in context?” it said.

The use of Ms Liddle’s quotes follows a report in The Guardian last week that independent senator Lidia Thorpe – another unwilling participant in the Not Enough advertising campaign – had labelled her own inclusion as “deceptive and underhanded”.

"I'm not in the 'No' camp," she told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.  

"I've never been in the 'No' camp and my position has been clear all along … that we need a treaty in this country."

This is not the first time Advance Australia has been accused by those featured in its campaigns of misrepresenting them and usually without their permission. FactLab recently revealed a man incorrectly identified by No campaigners as Vincent Lingiari's grandson denied that he was related to the famed Indigenous land rights activist.

Senator Price and anti-Voice campaigner Warren Mundine both wrongly identified the man on Twitter.

According to Meta’s Ad Library data, Not Enough has launched a total of 60 ads in support of the No campaign since May 18, which have amassed 1.5 to 1.8 million impressions. 

The data shows that women between the ages of 18 and 34 in New South Wales and Victoria are those most commonly shown the ads. 

According to the data the estimated total spend on Not Enough’s Facebook ads relating to the Voice from May 18 to May 30 was between $5,700 and $7,294. 

In a referendum expected to be held between October and December this year, Australians will vote on whether to change the constitution to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice that would advise the parliament and government on matters relating to Indigenous peoples. 

The legislation to establish the referendum passed through the lower house on May 31, and will be debated in the Senate which is due to next sit later in June.