WEBVTT - After the 'no' vote: Advance’s plan to destroy the Greens 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:03.600 From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:12.159 This is seven am. The hard right group behind the 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.480 No campaign is amassing a multi million dollar war chest 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:20.520 to take down its next opponent, the Australian Greens. Advance 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.640 has called the Greens the single biggest threat to freedom, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.720 security and prosperity in Australia and they have big plans 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.120 to target their voters ahead of the next election. Today, 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.320 special correspondent for the Saturday Paper Jason Kotsukus on who 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.520 is behind Advance and why they believe they can flip 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.080 progressive women to the hard right. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:59.320 It's Monday, August nineteen, So, Jason. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.800 The lobby group that calls themselves Advance, we first heard 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.720 about them last year. They were a key force behind 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.240 the No campaign in the lead up to the Voice referendum. 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.080 Since they're a huge success in that campaign, what have 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:13.960 they been doing. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:19.240 Well, quite a lot actually, Ruby. Right now Advance is 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.480 getting ready for the next federal election, which we're expecting 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.839 between March and May next year. So far, Advance says 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.600 they've raised one point five million dollars of a five 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.520 million dollar fundraising target ahead of the election. If you 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.880 log onto their website, they say they've got three hundred 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.759 and six thousand online supporters and thirty two thousand donors. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.080 They've hired twenty three full time staff, and they've expanded 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.920 the permanent campaign infrastructure to include things like data analytics, 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:56.800 creative department, digital communications, fundraising, political strategy, even a call center. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:02.120 Jay Tonight, it is outside to welcome our special guest, 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:06.120 Matthew Shan, the CEO of Advanced Australia, and our topic 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.080 tonight is value based powerful campaigning. 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:14.120 And in a recent presentation to the Australian Jewish Association, 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:20.000 advance's CEO Matthew Shan described Advance's goal as wanting to 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.080 defend the fruits of the Judeo Christian West. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.800 Was we wanted to defend the fruits of the Judeo 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:32.120 Christian West and for the purposes of our organization, that 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.320 was three things, so freedom, security, and prosperity. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.160 He says. That's what they do all year round, every day. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.600 We don't campaign on any other issue. We exist solely 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.200 to defend and promote those three things. 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.280 He says. They recently did research into the biggest threat 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:58.320 to freedom, security and prosperity and landed on the Australian Greens. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.760 According to to Matthew, she advances entire focus from now 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:08.040 until the election will be to try to inflict damage 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.639 on the Greens brand. He even said, we're actually doing 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.440 nothing else between now and the next federal election, but 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.079 this campaign his main aim is to shrink the Greens 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.079 vote back to where they were in twenty sixteen. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.320 Right, And obviously the Greens have grown as a political 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.760 force since twenty sixteen. At the last election they did 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:37.200 particularly well. They won six Senate seats. They now have 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.800 eleven Senators and four MPs in the House of Representatives. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.400 Clearly Advance sees them as a threat. So tell me 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.960 a bit more about advances research into the Greens. 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.520 So Matthew, She said that he instructed the polling researchers 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:57.880 that Advance wanted to understand what the Australian people thought 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.800 about the political parties from a breat point of view, 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.120 and he was very careful to say that he didn't 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.320 want to know about what people thought about the policies 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.160 or the politicians. He wanted to get voters in a 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.960 room and start thinking about how did their political parties 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.839 make voters feel. What the research came back showing was 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.680 that For both the major parties, roughly a quarter of 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.120 people said that they believe that those parties stand for nothing. 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.400 For the Nationals, they're in even worse trouble, with almost 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.559 half of people saying that they think the National Party 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.480 stands for nothing. But when it comes to the Greens, 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.440 Advances research showed that nearly eighty percent of people surveyed 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.840 and that's not just Green's voters, but all voters think 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.039 that the party stands for action on climate change or 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:51.880 protecting the environment, and gives them enormous credibility in the 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.040 minds of voters. And that's why they have the most 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.120 trusted political brand in the country. And the thing that 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.680 really irks Matthew Sheen about that is that he believes 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:08.640 fundamentally that the Greens present themselves as a party that 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.440 is primarily concerned about the environment, and that voters have 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:14.080 swallowed that. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.440 Okay, So it sounds like Advance is going for the 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:21.279 Greens because of what they represent from a political standpoint, 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.800 but also because of the trust that people have in them. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.560 So how do they plan to dislaunche that level of support. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:35.320 Matthew she And characterized most voters as being low information voters. 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.239 That most voters are going into the polling booth saying 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.760 to themselves, I don't really want to be here. I'm 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.400 not that interested in politics. But if I vote for 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.440 the Greens at least in the number one position, well 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.039 then you know, at least I'm going to feel good 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.240 about something that I did today. The group that Advances 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:57.880 identifying as being the most persuadable are predominantly women, age 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.320 between thirty three and forty nine. According to the research, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.599 they're the ones that think that the Greens are doing 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.200 the right thing by the environment, but they don't don't 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.720 really know much else about the party, And I think 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:17.239 Advance believes that if they can reveal to that age 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.200 group just who the Greens are, that they might not 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:21.719 be prepared to vote for them again. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.280 So women are twice as likely to vote Green or 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.360 Tel or Greens the men. So as of a few 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:34.280 weeks ago, eighteen percent of all women in this country 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:38.840 intended to vote Green. Tell me about eight percent of males. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.920 And the other thing that he's taken from the Greens 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.520 having such a strong political brand is that instead of 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.279 attacking the party head on as a group that wants 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:53.040 to enact radical change, the first step in Advances campaign 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.800 has to be trying to take a different approach and 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.200 try to meet voters where they are with the message 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.800 that the Greens are not what they used to be. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.200 If we came out and said, you know, the Greens 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.760 are this the Greens so that they're bad, you know, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.520 they want to breach the US alliance, they wouldn't actually hear. 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.600 Confidentive dissonance would kick in, they'd say, and we saw 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.920 it in focus group. The shutters would go up. So 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:18.840 we've got to be a bit more softly softly in 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.240 the beginning. And this is the message that tested the 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.160 best out of the research. They're not they used to be. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.440 And the message that Advance wants voters to hear is 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.000 I haven't changed, it's the Greens that have changed. And 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.040 the idea here is that it leads voters off the 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.200 hook and saves face for changing their position. 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.720 The Greens party is a party of hatred of Western civilization, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.880 which wants to destroy every tradition we've been built on 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:49.480 the Greens. 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.520 The campaign that the Greens aren't who they used to be. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.840 They've given it a name, Green's Truth. On our current trajectory, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.920 there is absolutely no reason why next ten to twenty 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.240 years we're not going to see a Greens government. And 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.360 the centerpiece of that campaign will be a documentary film 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.239 that Advance says has a three hundred and seventeen thousand 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.800 dollars production budget that promises to tell the full story 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.920 of how and why the Greens have fallen so far. 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.280 According to a fundraising pitch that was emailed to support 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:29.840 us on Thursday, this documentary will not only inform and 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.800 motivate voters on its own, they're also going to use 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.480 it as the basis for all of their advertising going forward, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:42.000 so social media, television and all the other campaign material 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.160 that they're blarning to put out trying to paint the 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:46.920 Greens as a scary left wing. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:09:03.080 Party coming up, Jason goes looking for the people behind Advance. Jason, 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.800 you've been looking into the lobby group Advance, and you've 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.040 found that their entire focus ahead of the next election 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.560 will be on bringing down the Greens. So at this 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.200 point we know a lot about who they don't like, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.000 what they're opposing, and what their plan is, but we 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.760 know less about the group itself, about Advance, So tell 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:23.360 me about them. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.880 Well, I think the thing that struck me most about 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.400 this group in writing this story was just how elusive 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.120 it is as an organization, and we don't really know 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.520 all that much about it. We know that it was 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.600 founded in twenty eighteen with about two hundred and eighty 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.000 thousand dollars in seed funding that was contributed by a 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:49.440 retired Sydney fund manager named Simon Fennick, but I don't 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:54.000 really know much about Simon. We also know that there's 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.040 a lot of people who were attached to the Liberal 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:01.120 Party that are quite close to this group. Tony Abbott, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.320 the former Liberal leader and former Prime Minister, is on 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:11.079 as advisory board. There's a couple of act Liberal politicians 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.680 who are also on that advisory board. We know that 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.520 Advance as spokesperson before the twenty twenty two election was 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:24.160 just Enterprise. She's now, of course, Senator Justiner Price. So 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.080 while the Advance claims to be independent, they do have 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.880 a lot of ties to the Liberal Party. When it 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.120 comes to Matthew Shean, I wasn't really able to find 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.520 out that much about him. You know, he really just 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.680 came onto the scene as the executive director of Advance, 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:45.560 but his working life prior to that was difficult for 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.400 me to uncover anything really substantial. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.040 Okay, Well, given that then, and given a certain sense 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.920 of mystery surrounding Advance and who belongs to the group 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:58.760 and where the money comes from, what was it like 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.720 as a report trying to get information about them? 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:02.920 Oh? 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.400 It was quite difficult. There's an address an email address 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.560 on the website for media inquiries. I sent through a 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:14.160 few requests for interviews with mister Shean and I got 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.000 a couple of replies saying look, we're happy to answer questions. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.720 Those emails weren't signed or it wasn't clear who who 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:24.079 those replies were coming from. For an organization with twenty 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:29.160 three staff, I thought, well, I'll go and visit their headquarters, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.600 which are listed on the website as being at Level 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.000 four at fifteen More Street in Civic, the main civic 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.840 center here in Canberra. So I went there to just 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:42.520 knock on the door and see if I could talk 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:43.480 to anyone that way. 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:44.600 Was anyone there? 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:44.880 Well? 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.640 When the elevator door opened on level four, I quickly 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.800 realized that this was a co working space. When I 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.480 asked for Matthew Sheen somewhere there, the reception has said, well, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.680 do you mean the Advanced guy, and I said yes, 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:04.439 and then I just got the reply that, well, Matthew 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.680 comes in here sometimes, but not very often. So it 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.800 turns out that they don't actually have an office there. 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.800 They just list this place as their office, and I 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.400 guess they come to some sort of hot desk arrangement, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.000 or perhaps they have a meeting there from time to time. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.120 So it really does raise a few questions as to, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.440 you know, who are these twenty three staff they supposedly have, 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.960 where are they spending all the money they raise? And 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.880 you know, even things like the website you strike me 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.840 as being a little bit elusive because you look through 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.199 some of the photographs they have of all these very 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:49.000 enthusiastic volunteers that they have supporting them. But if you 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.440 sort of look behind the images, you quickly realize that 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:58.040 these are just stock images that Advances are brought from 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:02.360 an agency and are not representing real people that support 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.720 the organization. And I think there's also some questions about 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.360 where they get all their money, because if you look 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:14.600 at the Australian Electoral Commission declarations on money raised and 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:20.000 spent during the referendum campaign, you see that Advance collected 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.280 one point three million in donations ahead of the referendum, 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.080 but they spent ten point four million on the No campaign. 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.840 So where is that nine point one from then. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.800 That's not clear. There was an affiliate group that was 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.439 essentially a part of Advance called Australians for Unity. They 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.120 also spend eleven point eight million after raising about ten 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.000 point eight million in donations. So it might be a 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:53.640 situation where Australians for Unity has given money to Advance. 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:58.000 But it's difficult to actually work that out because Advance 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.280 is so secretive when it comes to the source of 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.600 its money. And I even called Matthew she to ask 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.840 him about it, and he said to me that he 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.480 couldn't talk because he was going through airport security. Now 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.040 that might well be true, but it certainly seemed to 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.720 be the world's quietest airport security I've ever heard. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:24.400 Okay, So, even without speaking directly to Matthew Sheer, tell 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.280 me where you arrived at the end of your reporting 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.760 on this in terms of how successful you think Advance 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.880 is going to be ahead of this election in targeting 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:37.440 the Greens. Do you think that they can do what 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:38.400 they're setting out to do. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.480 It's difficult to really know. I guess all we can 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:49.000 go on advances past performance. The effort to promote the 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:53.560 no campaign during the Voice referendum last year was, by 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:58.840 Advances measure successful. Sixty percent of people voted no, and 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.400 Advance has taken a lot of credit for that. But 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.720 a lot of other political analysts say, well, as soon 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.640 as you had the main opposition parties coming out against 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.240 the Voice, then the yes vote was doomed and it 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.280 wouldn't have mattered what a group like Advance was doing. 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:22.000 What I call Adam Band's office on Thursday morning, they 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.040 were very happy to put Adam in front of me 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.920 and talk about how he thinks the Australian Greens will 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.120 be best plays to respond to this campaign that Advance 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:39.520 is planning, and that seemed pretty unfazed by the threat 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:44.000 posed by Advance. He thinks that voters trust the Greens 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.240 because it consistently fights for the things that the people 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:52.240 care about, while Advance may have a few wealthy donors 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:57.480 who want to defend their obscene wealth. According to him, 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.800 a key question to ask of the group why are 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.479 they doing what they're doing? In his view, the Conservatives 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:08.320 are attacking the Greens and not Labor because it's the 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:13.800 Greens that is the progressive alternative. So for Adam Bound, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.600 whatever Advance does or is planning to do, isn't really 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.520 going to change his strategy or the strategy of his party. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.160 Well, Jason, thank you so much for your time today. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:34.680 Ruby, it's a pleasure to talk with you as always. 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.560 Also in the news today, Government frontbencher Ed Husick has 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.320 accused Peter Dutton of playing politics with one of the 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.880 worst humanitarian crises we've ever seen. Mister Dutton has been 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.200 calling on a band for visas for Palestinians escaping the war, 0:16:55.400 --> 0:17:00.120 citing security risks. His comments sparked outrage in Parliament, with 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:05.320 Independent MP Zali Stegel calling mister Dutton racist. Sky News 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.400 is now reporting that mister Dutton is seeking legal advice 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.399 against Miss Stegel and former Prime Minister John Howard has 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.760 said the Northern Territory intervention was totally justified. His comments 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.720 come weeks after the territory's Police Commissioner, Michael Murphy apologized 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.359 for the force's involvement. Mister Murphy had acknowledged that many 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.800 Indigenous Australians viewed the intervention as racist, but mister Howard 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.879 defended the measures, including restrictions on alcohol and pornography, and 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.560 the control of welfare through the Basics Card. The Liberal 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:42.600 government's intervention Laws suspended the Racial Discrimination Act. I'm Ruby Jones. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:18:02.400 This is seven am. Thanks for listening.