We “destroyed” Greens: Megamillionaire disinformation group “Advance”

EXCLUSIVE

ANTHONY KLAN

The group that ran the “No” campaign against the Indigenous Voice to parliament — funded by the Liberal Party and fossil fuels multi-millionaires — claims to have “destroyed” the Greens.

In an email titled “BREAKING: Greens destroyed by Advance blitz”, US-style disinformation group “Advance” has claimed its “critical work” had “helped stop the Greens in their tracks”.

“The Greens have been belted,” Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan writes in an email.

He states the group’s so-called “Greens Truth” campaign “cut them (Greens) down from six seats to at most two. Maybe one”.

“They were on the cusp of forming a government with Labor,” Sheehan writes.

“Now their leader Adam Bandt is struggling to hold his seat of Melbourne.

“And their future leader Max Chandler-Mather — the man who wanted to be the first Greens Prime Minister — is unemployed.

“He lost his seat!” writes Sheahan.

Part of the Advance email today.

ALP Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was swept to power for a second term last night, winning an overwhelming majority of seats, with the Coalition suffering an electoral wipeout.

Sheehan writes today: “The Greens have been belted. And for that, I thank you”.

“You did an important job in stopping the Greens cold and bringing the fight to Labor,” he writes.

“It just goes to show how critical our work is”.

Advance has aggressively targeted the Greens with a systemic, clinical campaign, stating the minor party is “extreme” and “reckless”.

Matthew Sheahans’s email today.

Shortly after the mass Advance email this afternoon, The Australian newspaper published an article titled “Industry message to Labor: Greens are dead, now hit the gas”.

“Labor must prioritise boosting gas supply with its landslide electoral win showing Australians did not support ‘reckless’ Green policies, including a ban on new gas projects, big energy producers said,” the paper reports.

The article cites fossil fuels lobby group Australian Energy Producers stating the Greens “cannot be allowed to continue to hold legislation to ransom in the Senate”.

It cites Brett Woods, CEO of oil and gas giant Beach Energy, who states the election results were a “rejection by the Australian people of the extreme Green agenda that was opposed to ongoing development of new natural gas fields”.

“A rejection by the Australian people of the extreme Green agenda” — Beach Energy CEO Brett Woods

The article was surrounded by a large advertisement from the Minerals Council stating “mining keeps the lights on”, with pictures of a house with lights on at night and the same house in darkness.

Source: The Australian

Independent MP Zali Steggal, who has retained her seat of Warringah, on Sydney’s North Shore, said independent candidates had been aggressively attacked by fossil fuels funded “far-right” groups.

“What we saw was the growth of those third-party actor organisations so we saw in the referendum Advance Australia who ironically started with me back in Warringah in 2019,” she said.

She said the organisations had “grown in confidence” and had “given way to splinter groups.”

“You have got, you know, Jason Falinski, an ex-Liberal MP behind the Australians for Prosperity, you got Better Australia Advance,” Steggal said.

“You got a lot of these attack fronts for the Liberal Party with a lot of money from fossil fuel it is, attacking in these communities.

Steggal said Independents had been able to retain their seats despite this.

Zali Steggal on Insiders. Source: BlueSky

Advance falsely claims it is a “grassroots” organisation of “ordinary Aussies”. In fact, it is bankrolled by mega-millionaires — many with deep ties to fossil fuels — and, more recently, the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party was last financial year Advance’s  biggest funder — by a factor of ten — giving the disinformation $500,000, via its electoral slush fund the Cormack Foundation.

Advance was the main “No” group against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and ran an aggressive disinformation campaign against the proposal.

It has repeatedly publicly claimed credit for the collapse in public support for the proposal and its subsequent failure.

Internationally, one of the biggest impediments to aggressive fossil fuels expansion has been Indigenous rights.

In recent months, Advance has run aggressive disinformation campaigns against the Greens, claiming the party is “reckless” and “extreme”; the ALP, claiming Prime Minister Anthony and the ALP are “weak, woke and sending us broke”; and Independents, spreading lies that Independent candidates are Greens in disguise.

It has also actively spread lies campaigning against the Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremony, including in the lead up ANZAC Day.

Further, it sent out a highly divisive mass email on the eve of ANZAC Day, hours before the Welcome to Country ceremony was booed at Melbourne’s dawn service.

Advance posts to social media last night. Source: Twitter/x

Sheehan writes today he was “disappointed” the group’s anti-ALP campaign “didn’t stop more Labor MP’s getting elected”.

“I know you might be disappointed that ADVANCE’s ‘Weak, Woke, Broke’ campaign didn’t stop more Labor MPs getting elected,” he writes.

“I’m the same. But the truth is, this campaign was dragged down by the poor campaign performance of the Coalition.

“That’s not a criticism, it’s just a brutal campaign reality.

“I just don’t know why they kept their best performers hidden, writes Sheehan.

Advance executive director Matthew Sheahan. Picture: Anthony Klan/The Klaxon

He does not state who he considered the Coalition’s “best performers” were.

“The feedback on the ground was that ADVANCE’s ‘Weak, Woke, Broke’ campaign was the only one that did any damage to the Labor vote,” writes Sheehan,

“On behalf of the country, you did an important job in stopping the Greens cold and bringing the fight to Labor,” he writes.

“It just goes to show how critical our work is.

“As I said in the beginning, this campaign against the Greens was just phase one,” writes Sheehan.

“We’re not going to stop until their party becomes irrelevant”.

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Thank you,

Anthony Klan

Editor, The Klaxon