ACA to formally endorse the Voice as Australian media remains on the fence
The Advertising Council Australia (ACA) is looking to formalise support of Voice to Parliament with its board, Mumbrella can reveal, in a move that would make it the first media and marketing industry body to openly indicate its stance on the Referendum.
In a statement shared with Mumbrella, ACA CEO Tony Hale linked the decision to the launch of its inaugural reconciliation action plan (RAP) two years ago, but said the industry body would “continue to respect” that its member agencies and their staff are “entitled to their own perspectives on this important issue”.
The Ad Council set to back the Voice to Parliament
Mumbrella understands the AANA will not be making a formal endorsement of the Voice, but did make an effort to educate its members on the matter at its recent AANA Reset Conference, which included a session from Indigenous reconciliation leader, Shelley Reys.
The MFA’s Sophie Madden said the organisation valued “inclusivity and diversity” and respected “the right of individuals to choose how they vote” and there fore would not be “adopting a formal position on the Voice”.
“We are supportive of education and awareness on the proposal for a national Voice, and endorse the efforts of many of our agency members which are providing a safe space for the conversation to take place within their workplaces.”
According to political advertising regulations outlined in Australian law, all media businesses are required to broadcast political ads from all political parties, or in this case, sides of a political campaign. The new Referendum Machinery Bill, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support last month, has seen that the upcoming Referendum will operate in the same way as a federal election. As such, the political advertising regulations media businesses will be subject to throughout the campaign period, will be identical to those during the last Federal Election.
However, being the first Australian referendum in more than two decades, there is little recent precedent for how the media and marketing industry will approach such a critical national conversation, with the 2017 plebiscite on Marriage Equality being the closest example.
During the plebiscite campaign, a number of independent media businesses, like The Guardian, Mamamia, and Pedestrian supported same-sex marriage, while other media companies, including the major TV Networks, said they would accept advertising from both sides.
Being partially government-funded, SBS has confirmed that its channels, including NITV, will remain impartial on the Voice debate. The ABC will also be required to remain neutral, in the interest of airing both sides of the debate.
While the commercial networks have a little more scope to take a stance on either side of the debate, organisationally if not editorially, its appears most of Australia’s mainstream media will be claiming a neutral position, while somberly acknowledging the importance of this moment in Australia’s complex history.
In a statement sent to Mumbrella, a Nine spokesperson said the company would be covering the Voice referendum in a “balanced and independent way” across its editorial operations spanning publishing, television and audio.
Mumbrella understands that Nine’s youth title, Pedestrian, will be more at liberty to lean towards the Yes campaign on the issue.
A News Corp spokesperson noted that its individual titles would “continue to cover the debate on the Voice to inform their audiences on the issues”.
In June 2022, the media company ran a full-page advertorial across its mastheads on behalf of executive chairman, Michael Miller, who stated that “consistent” with News Corp’s “reconciliation vision” the company would “explicitly advocate for positive recognition and change by using our audience reach to help foster a national culture that ensures respect, equality and equity for First Nations peoples and benefits all Australians”.
Miller’s statement commended Prime Minister Albanese for “putting the Voice at the top of the nation’s agenda”, but reinforced the responsibility of journalists and editors to help people to “understand the choices” they will be asked to make.
Mumbrella also reached out to Paramount and Seven Network for comment, however did not receive comment before the time of publication.
I only clicked on this article because I thought A Current Affair had endorsed the Voice – now that would be great media news!
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None of the commercial channels are independent in election the bias towards the LNP is blatant. They were not independent during the Marriage Equality debate, so why should we expect anything different now?
Advertisers need to be careful that their advertising does not appear near the fear mongering stories expected from the media.
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This could only hurt the cause.
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