Melbourne Storm co-owner and director Brett Ralph is one of the biggest funders of disinformation group “Advance” — which has been running a campaign of hate and division against the Indigenous Welcome to Country.
Since the founding of Advance — which claims the Indigenous ceremony is part of a secretive plan by “elites” to “delegitimise Australia’s history” — Ralph has given the disinformation group at least $275,000.
Last financial year he was its tied second biggest funder, giving Advance $50,000 — behind only the Liberal Party, which gave the disinformation group a massive $500,000, Australian Electoral Commission records show.
NRL giant Melbourne Storm cancelled its planned Welcome to Country address Friday, hours after the Indigenous ceremony at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service was marred by booing and abuse from a group of people, including a convicted neo-Nazi.
Investigations show Ralph — who has been a director of Melbourne Storm since 2021, and who co-owns 20% of the team — has given Advance at least $275,000 since the disinformation group was founded in 2018.
“Ralph is one of the biggest funders of Advance”
As previously revealed, on April 16 Advance sent a mass email, titled “Sick of hearing Welcome to Country?” — and declared the Indigenous ceremony was a “direct attack on Australian values”.
“It’s about delegitimising your place in the country, your family’s history, the sacrifice and blood, sweat and tears that went into building Australia,” wrote Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan.
Ralph is one of just four board members of the Melbourne Storm, including its chairman, Matthew Tripp.
“Welcome to Country (is) part of a broad plan to delegitimise Australia’s history” – Advance
Advance sent out a mass email attacking the Welcome to Country on April 16 . Source: The Klaxon
Senior Aboriginal elder Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin said Melbourne Storm told her Friday afternoon that the Welcome to Country address would not go ahead that evening, in its match against the South Sydney Rabbithohs.
Tripp told the ABC that, before the cancellation, the Storm board had “asked for clarification about the sequencing of the Anzac Day ceremony” and that “we were not aware that a Welcome to Country was to be performed”.
“There was some confusion yesterday and we take responsibility for that,” Tripp said.
“Welcome to Country cancelled ‘due to the wishes of the board’”
Kathleen Terrick, an Indigenous dancer slated to have appear at the event, told the ABC the group had been told the cancellation of the Welcome to Country was “due to the wishes of the board”.
“All the work we’ve done to build a respectful relationship, that’s now been shattered,” Terrick said.
Ralph has been approached for comment. He has previously repeatedly refused to comment when contacted by The Klaxon about his funding of Advance.
Tripp has also been approached for comment.
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Part of the email from Advance executive director Matthew Sheehan. Source: Advance/supplied
Since Advance was founded in 2018, Ralph has made six disclosed payments to Advance, all via his private company JMR Management Consultancy Services, Australian Electoral Commission records show.
He gave the disinformation group $50,000 in 2020-21; $75,000 across two payments in 2021-22; $50,000 in 2022-23; and $50,000 last financial year.
He also gave $50,000 to Advance’s anti-Voice fundraising arm, “Australians for Unity”, in the six-month period before the October, 2023 referendum.
Brett Ralph. Source: Supplied
In its April 16 missive, Advance said Welcome to Country ceremonies were “divisive”, “they solve nothing” and “they’re pushed by activists and elites”.
The ceremony “actually means” that “this isn’t your country anymore” and “you’re a coloniser” and “it’s time you paid up”, it said.
No evidence was provided to support the claims.
“Left-wing bureaucrats, activists and elites are spending big sums of your money on their ceremonies at your expense, when real mainstream Australians are struggling”, the group wrote (Advance’s emphasis).
Advance, which ran the “No” campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, falsely claims to be a “grassroots” movement of “ordinary Aussies” and rails against “elites”.
In fact, it is bankrolled by mega-millionaires — the “elite” of the “elite” — including megamillionaire Ralph.
“Brett is the Founder and Managing Director of Jet Couriers, a family business with operations in Australia, New Zealand and the United States,” says his Melbourne Storm bio.
“In addition to his transport companies, he has a diverse range of business interests operating throughout Australia, Europe and North America.”
The disclosed donors to “Advance” in 2021-22, including Brett Ralph, and their vast fortunes. Source: AEC/Various. Graphic: The Klaxon
Ralph is also a director of the Melbourne United Basketball Club, chairman of the Melbourne Aces Baseball Club and in 2023 he became the majority shareholder in Dick Johnston’s V8 Super Car racing team.
He has an estimated personal wealth of more than $100 million.
The Melbourne Storm board is comprised of Ralph, Tripp, Bart Campbell and Gerry Ryan.
Tripp is the founder of gambling giants Sportsbet and BetEasy.
Campbell is CEO of Melbourne sports marketing agency Left Field Live and sits on the boards of New Zealand Rugby and World Rugby.
Ryan, who is also a co-owner of Melbourne Storm, is the founder and chairman of caravan and camper trailer giant Jayco Australia.
“The Liberal Party gave Advance $500,000 last financial year”
Advance claimed victory for defeating the Voice, with its aggressive campaign of disinformation – including a full-page racist advertisement in the Australian Financial Review – coinciding with a collapse in public support for the proposal.
Racism has been a central feature of Advance’s campaigning, and at the Federal Dunkley by-election last year ran ads of splattered blood and hoodie wearing “immigrants”.
AEC records show the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party gave Advance $500,000 last financial year, via the Cormack Foundation, the party’s main electoral slush fund.
A YouGov poll Friday found support for Peter Dutton’s Coalition has crashed and it was on track to record its worst result in Liberal Party history.
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Anthony Klan
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