Disinformation group “Advance” has said Adam Bandt “could not survive” the “massive”, “year-long campaign” it had “unleashed” on the Greens leader.
In an email today, Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan said Bandt’s loss was a result of the “damage caused” by the group’s “multi-million dollar attack”.
“Bandt could not survive the massive year-long campaign unleashed by Advance and its supporters,” Sheahan said.
“He suffered a catastrophic hit to his vote”.
Conceding defeat this afternoon, Bandt said the Greens had secured the most votes in his seat of Melbourne, but that “Liberal and One Nation preferences” would “get Labor over the line”.
“We needed to get over Liberal, Labor and One Nation combined,” Bandt told reporters.
“It was an Everest we have climbed a few times, but this time we fell short”.
Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan. Source: Advance
Advance falsely claims to be a “grassroots” movement of “ordinary Aussies”, but is in fact bankrolled by mega-millionaires, many with deep ties to fossil fuels.
Last financial year the biggest funder of the US-style disinformation group — by a factor of ten — was the Liberal Party.
Advance, which ran the main “No” campaign against the Indigenous Voice to parliament, aggressively attacks the Greens and Climate 200 community independents, as well as the ALP.
Advance spreads division, claiming Australia is comprised of an “us” and a “them”. Source: Advance
Sheahan said that because of Advance, “the leader of the Greens has lost his seat”.
“The Greens went into this campaign planning to bag nine seats,” he said.
“But in every seat Advance targeted, the Greens have suffered terminal declines in their primary vote”.
More on “Advance”:
Apr 29 — Liberals give “Advance” more than Gov’t spends on Welcome to Country
Apr 28 — Liberal’s “Advance” spread ANZAC-eve division
Apr 27 — Storm director funds hate group “Advance”
Apr 24 — Liberal Party’s “Advance” in Indigenous hate rant
Mar 28 — Liberal Party’s “Advance” kicks off with outright lies
Jan 15 — Anti-Voice group spreading “whale death” lies
Max Chandler-Mather, who had represented the Greens in the Brisbane seat of Griffith, also lost his seat.
Both were defeated by ALP candidates.
“We’ve cleaned out Max Chandler-Mather, a future Greens leader,” Sheahan said.
“Now we’ve taken out their leader, Adam Bandt”.
“Now we’ve taken out their leader, Adam Bandt” – Sheahan
Advance ran the “No” campaign against the Voice to parliament, actively spreading lies and disinformation about the proposal, and has claimed credit for its defeat.
The mega-millionaire backed disinformation group has been aggressively attacking renewable energy, pushing fossil fuels interests, while claiming to represent “ordinary Aussies”.
Disinformation group “Advance” runs an arm called “Not Zero”. Source: Advance
Advance, which runs an arm called “Not Zero”, is at the heart of a campaign flooding the nation with renewable energy disinformation, including the lie that offshore wind farms kill whales.
Last month it kicked off the federal election campaign last month spreading a host of outright lies, including that an ALP minority government would see utes “banned” and immigration “tripled”.
“Bandt could not survive the massive year-long campaign unleashed by Advance” — Sheahan
Speaking with ABC Radio, Paddy Manning, author of book Inside the Greens, said the party had suffered because of the attacks from “astroturfing” Advance.
Astroturfing refers to groups operating fake “grassroots” movements to sway public opinion.
Saturday’s election saw a landslide victory for the ALP, with the Coalition on track to deliver the worst result in the Liberal Party history.
