Mega-millionaire-funded disinformation group “Advance” has declared the Indigenous “Welcome to Country” is part of a secretive plan by “elites” to “delegitimise Australia’s history”.
In its latest divisive attack, Advance — which claimed it was opposed to the Indigenous Voice because it was “divisive” — has said the ceremony “is about delegitimising your place in the country”.
According to Advance, the Indigenous welcome — which is sometimes conducted at official events — “actually means” that “this isn’t your country anymore”, and that “it’s time you paid up”.
“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,” writes Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan.
The Advance email is titled: “Sick of hearing ‘Welcome to Country’?”
“Sick of hearing ‘Welcome to Country’?” — Advance
The biggest funder of Advance last financial year — by a factor of 10 — was the Liberal Party, which gave it $500,000 via its election funding vehicle, the Cormack Foundation.
“It’s about delegitimising your place in the country, your family’s history” –Advance
Part of the email from Advance executive director Matthew Sheehan. Source: Advance/supplied
Advance aggressively spreads lies and disinformation attacking the ALP, Greens and Independents, advancing the interests of the Liberal Party.
The Liberal Party is down in the polls — with the gap widening since the election campaign began late last month — which Opposition leader Peter Dutton was asked to explain at the third leader’s debate Tuesday night.
Dutton said declining support for the Coalition was due to “attack ads” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ALP.
“The Labor Party spent $20m throwing mud and negative attack ads and that has an impact,” Dutton said.
He made no mention of Advance.
Last week Advance send an email stating it was running a “massive” campaign, and boasted it was “outspending both the Liberals and Teals combined”, citing an Australian Financial Review article.
Hours after Albanese called the election on March 28, Advance sent a series of outright lies to its extensive mailing list, including that an ALP minority government would see utes “banned” and immigration “tripled”.
In the group’s latest email, Advance spokesman Sheehan has savagely attacked the Indigenous Welcome to Country.
The ceremonies are “pushed by activists and elites” who “hate our country”, writes Sheahan, who provides no evidence to back the claims.
“Let’s start by cutting the Welcome to Country ceremony,” he writes.
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Matthew Sheahan speaks at the CPAC Australia conference in October last year. Picture: Anthony Klan/The Klaxon
According to Sheahan, “left-wing bureaucrats, activists and elites” are “spending big sums of your money on their ceremonies” when “real mainstream Australians are struggling”.
Advance lies and claims to be a “grassroots” movement of “ordinary Aussies”.
In fact, it is bankrolled by mega-millionaires — many of them long-time Liberal Party donors.
In the 2021-22 financial year the disclosed donors to Advance boiled down to just ten entities — each with an estimated fortune of $50 million or more.
“Real mainstream Australians are struggling” — Advance
The disclosed donors to “Advance” in 2021-22 and their vast fortunes. Source: AEC/Various. Graphic: The Klaxon
Advance formed the “No” campaign against the Indigenous Voice, using imagery of hardworking and exhausted looking blue-collar Australians and claimed it was fighting against “elites” and the “inner-city woke”.
Advance claimed it was opposed to the Voice because it was “divisive”.
Its highly divisive campaign was riddled with lies and disinformation, including a full-page racist advertisement in the Australian Financial Review.
It has repeatedly publicly claimed victory for the collapse in support for the Voice and its failure.
(After the Voice was defeated Advance declared Australia was comprised of an “us” and a “them”).
An Advance attack ad ahead of the Dunkley by-election. Source: Twitter/X
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”.
Investigations show many of the mega-millionaire funders of Advance have deep ties to fossil fuels.
Advance actively spreads anti-renewable and pro-fossil fuels propaganda— including lies that offshore windfarms are “killing whales” — and runs an arm called “Not Zero”.
Internationally, one of the biggest impediments to aggressive fossil fuels expansion (and so fossil fuels profits) has been Indigenous rights.
The Liberal Party was by far the biggest funder of “Advance” last financial year. Source: The Klaxon
A Welcome to Country is a ceremony, such as a smoking ceremony or dance, conducted by an Indigenous elder (or similar) at some official events, including the opening of Parliament after each federal election.
Separate is an Acknowledgement of Country, which is a statement cited at the start of some meetings or events, which is “commonly delivered by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples”, although it is “not a universally accepted practice among the Indigenous community”, according to the University of NSW.
Sheehan writes that the Welcome to Country (he doesn’t mention the Acknowledgement of Country) is “damaging”, “unfair”, and is about “attacking Australia as we know it”.
It has “become a direct attack on Australian values”, he writes.
“In reality it’s about attacking Australia as we know it” — Advance
Support for Dutton’s Coalition has slumped since the start of the election campaign, led by plummeting support from women and younger voters.
According to a Newspoll survey this week, on a two-party-preferred basis, support among women for the Coalition has crashed five percentage points since the March 26.
“Make Australia great again” – declares Warren Mundine. Source: The Klaxon
Dutton and the Coalition had embraced Donald Trump-style “MAGA” politics, before backpedaling in recent weeks as the world reeled from anti-democracy actions of US President Donald Trump, as well as his “tariffs”, which have seen share markets tumble.
Less than two weeks ago, fronting press alongside Dutton, Liberal Senator Jacinta Price said she wanted to “make Australia great again”.
Prime almost immediately backtracked, then accused the media of being “obsessed” with US President Donald Trump.
The following day an image emerged of her at Christmas wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap and holding a miniature Trump.
Last week The Klaxon exclusively revealed Senior Liberal figure Warren Mundine had in late February announced he also wanted to “make Australia great again”.
The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age’s Good Weekend cover article on Advance. Source: SMH/The Age
Fronting the so-called “Conservative Political Action Group” (CPAC), in the US – hours after former Trump advisor Steve Bannon had thrown a Nazi-style salute at the event — Mundine made the declaration before donning a “make Australia great again” cap.
CPAC and Mundine refused to comment when contacted by The Klaxon.
Price and Mundine are “spokespeople” for Advance and fronted the group in its aggressive campaign against the Indigenous Voice.
The Klaxon’s work on Advance cited. Source: SMH/Age
Last year’s CPAC Australia conference was funded by Advance and fellow US-style disinformation group the “Institute of Public Affairs”, which aggressively campaigns to influence government policy but refuses to say who funds it.
The actions of Advance and other disinformation groups — many of which, including the “IPA”, also have deep ties to fossil fuels — have begun to attract wider attention.
Last weekend the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age publication Good Weekend ran a cover article on “propaganda machine” Advance and its “deluge of disinformation”.
In his latest email, Sheehan writes that the Welcome to Country is “about attacking Australia”.
“Real mainstream Australians are struggling,” writes Sheahan.
“The activists and elites say it’s about ‘reconciliation’, but in reality it’s about attacking Australia as we know it”.
Do you know more? anthonyklan@protonmail.com
Australia is under threat from bad actors seeking to enrich themselves and their vested interests’ backers at the expense of the public. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Please support our vital work. You can do so by making a RECURRING DONATION HERE or a ONE-OFF DONATION HERE.
Thank you,
Anthony Klan
Editor, The Klaxon
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