The Yes campaign is keen to leave Canberra behind, as the No vote pulls ahead for the first time

With a war chest running into the millions of dollars, the Yes campaign is offering grants for community groups to hold local discussions.

Aboriginal Flag Parliament House Canberra

The Voice debate has so far been centred on politicians. The Yes campaign believes a grassroots campaign will regain lost ground. Source: AAP / AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Community groups supportive of the Voice to Parliament will be eligible for grants of thousands of dollars from the Yes campaign.

Yes23, the campaign pushing for the constitutional change, will donate one-off payments of between $1000 and $15,000 to facilitate local events around the continent.

The smaller-scale gatherings will promote community awareness of the Voice and push voters to approve the proposal in the referendum later this year.
"We've taken the conversation out of the bubble and into the backyard," said Jade Ritchie, Yes23 spokesperson.

"We know community groups want to get behind this campaign, and these grants are so that [those] who don't necessarily have the means are able to do so," the Gooreng Gooreng woman told NITV.

"It's about getting the conversations out into the community, so that wherever you live ... you should be able to have these conversations and receive this information."

Yes23 has received tens of millions of dollars in donations, with one report suggesting they have up to $30 million dollars in the bank.

It is a figure that is likely to be higher than that of the No campaign. As the debate moves out of Canberra, the respective campaigns' war chests will become increasingly relevant as the source of advertising funds.

No vote takes lead as the debate hits the road

The legislation facilitating the Voice referendum passed parliament last week.

It sets up a likely vote in October this year.

The debate has so far centred on politicians: implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart was the first thing Anthony Albanese mentioned in his victory speech on election night last year, and the various political parties have spent the subsequent 13 months declaring their respective positions on the constitutionally enshrined advisory body.

It has been a bruising fight, and past experience suggests a lack of political unity is detrimental to a successful referendum. This appears to be borne out by recent polling, which has shown the No vote pulling ahead for the first time.
"This is consistent with a pattern that's been showing across several polls in the last few months, that the yes vote is going down and the rate of decline seems to be increasing," said electoral analyst Dr Kevin Bonham.

With the odds stacked against successful referenda, which have the high bar of a double majority to clear, Dr Bonham said the Yes campaign will have its work cut out.

"[They] will have to do something special and different from history [to win] ... once referendums start to slide in the polls it's difficult to recover."

Yes23 has been publicly upbeat in the face of polling, saying they believe moving the debate out of Canberra will be beneficial.

"We know that referendums are hard to win," said Ms Ritchie.

"There's a lot of work involved, and the biggest piece for us is having those conversations and getting people across what this is about.

"But we have over 10,000 active members who are out there having conversations, and that's growing."

Community organisations will have the opportunity to apply for Yes23 grants through an EOI process.

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3 min read
Published 27 June 2023 11:00am
By Dan Butler
Source: NITV


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