Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has reignited the uproar over corporate Australia’s divisive stance on the Voice, accusing business leaders of “hypocrisy and face-saving” after the incoming Qantas chair admitted its position “backfired”.
Qantas, alongside many major Aussie companies such as Woolworths and Telstra, drew significant backlash in 2023 after backing the controversial Indigenous body.
The support drew accusations of tokenism from opponents who argued major corporations should not weigh in on social issues.
Months after Australians overwhelmingly voted No, Qantas’ new chair John Mullen admitted corporate Australia’s support for the Yes campaign “backfired” and created an impression of the business community being “high and mighty”.
“The way that corporate Australia went about supporting it was detrimental to the image of corporate Australia in the eyes of many people,” he said.
“In retrospect, the broader business community was seen by a lot of people in Australia as high and mighty and telling us what we should do.”
The incoming Qantas chair’s admission caught the attention of Ms Price who told SkyNews.com.au the Australian business community’s pro-Voice stance was a reputational ploy that wound up alienating No voters.
“As I said time and time again during the referendum, the noisy minority, a lot of whom were part of corporate Australia, saw their public reputation as more important than anything else; forcing their views onto everyday Australians, and crucifying everyone who didn’t agree with them,” Ms Price said.
“These companies made the majority of Australians who did not want to support the referendum to feel as though the world was against them.”
The Country Liberal Senator touched on the time she personally wrote to the national carrier to share concerns from opponents of the Voice only to be turned down.
“I offered to meet with them for this purpose, but they rejected the invitation,” she said.
With corporate Australia proving to be firmly in the minority on the landmark issue, Ms Price argued, big business was trying to “back-pedal because they want to protect their reputation to the public once again”.
“It’s nothing but hypocrisy and face-saving,” she said.
“When Peter Dutton criticised this strategy of corporate Australia during the referendum, he was labelled a ‘bullyboy’ by the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney.
“Now those companies are seeing the light of day and are admitting what we were saying all along – that it was in fact they who were the bullies.”
The Senator’s comments come after Indigenous advocate and No supporter Warren Mundine branded corporate support for the Voice to Parliament a “national disgrace” following Mr Mullen’s comments.
Mr Mundine told SkyNews.com.au he’d “like to have a cup of tea and chat” with the incoming Qantas chair before skewering the conduct of corporate Australia in the lead up to the referendum.
“Corporate Australia during the Voice was a complete national disgrace,” he declared.
“They looked down their noses at us just because we didn’t support it. They sat there and supported disgusting conduct, we had poll workers, people at booths spat on, abused.
“Those corporates need to do some long, hard soul searching because right now I can tell you their soul is a deep, dark black.”
In backing the Voice, Qantas unveiled a fleet of planes carrying a Yes23 logo in August 2023 to support the referendum.
Former chief executive Alan Joyce was flanked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite when the aircraft livery was revealed.
The Indigenous Voice to Parliament failed in October last year, with less than 40 per cent of voters in favour of it.