A Liberal party mass text campaign against the Indigenous voice that encourages voters to sign up for a postal vote on the party’s website has been branded as “deceptive” by teal independent MPs.
Many thousands of Australians are believed to have received unsolicited texts from the Liberal party, some sent in the name of no campaign leader Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, branding the Indigenous voice as “risky”.
“Hi it’s Jacinta Price,” one version of the text reads, with the sender credited as “Jacinta”. “The referendum is on 14 Oct. This voice is risky, unknown and divisive. Don’t know? Say no. For a postal vote go to https://postal.vote.”
Other texts have been reported as coming from “LiberalWA”, with the same content as those sent in Price’s name, but without the greeting.
The postal.vote website is run by the Liberal party and authorised by its secretary, Andrew Hirst. It allows people to register for a postal vote by entering their details online, which the party then passes on to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Both major parties have used such websites in previous election campaigns. The website came under scrutiny last week, with Labor demanding an investigation as postal vote registrations were not yet open. The Liberals described Labor’s complaints as “extreme hypocrisy” as the party used a similar website previously.
Postal vote applications opened on Monday, after the official issuing of writs for the referendum. Australians began reporting receiving the texts on Tuesday.
The postal.vote website states that if a voter submits their personal details on the form, “you will be providing this information to the Liberal Party of Australia and the Nationals, who will contact you regarding the referendum. You will now be redirected to the Australian Electoral Commission website.”
The Liberal party has also been circulating the postal.vote site via email. Senator James Paterson and MPs Michael Sukkar, Garth Hamilton and Warren Entsch are among the Coalition members emailing constituents about the voice referendum with a link to the site.
Many of the emails had varieties of the same lines, such as suggesting the voice “risks legal challenges” and stating “if you don’t know, say no”.
Entsch’s office said there was “not so much a directive, a guide”, when asked if Liberal HQ had sent out a script for the emails and a request to promote postal.vote. The office also noted “it happens every election”.
A Liberal party spokesperson said: “This voice proposal is risky. It doesn’t come with details. It’s divisive and would be permanent. That’s why this referendum is important and why we are encouraging Australians to vote no.”
Price’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The texts do not carry an authorisation message, but link to a website which carries a Liberal party authorisation.
The AEC said online that the texts were allowed.
“They’re legal, political parties don’t get phone numbers from AEC & the [message] today does appear to have the required authorisation statement via the link in the [message],” the AEC said on Twitter.
“Neither the Electoral Act or Referendum Act prohibit the distribution of campaign text messages. In addition, ACMA has previously advised that political parties are exempt from the Spam Act and Do Not Call Register Act.”
But the independent MPs Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender and Kate Chaney were all critical of the texts.
“They’ve set up an internet domain that looks like an official link to the electoral commission but is actually a link to the Liberal party,” Spender said.
Chaney said using the postal vote application process to gather personal data was “deceptive and predatory, even if it’s currently legal”.
“Both major parties have done it in the past and have exempted themselves from the Spam Act and the Privacy Act,” Chaney said. “It’s outrageous that this is considered acceptable.”
Chaney has proposed a private member’s bill in parliament to address the issue.
Steggall claimed her office had received complaints from constituents about the texts.
“It’s concerning because people who may think they are providing their details to the Australian Electoral Commission may be unwittingly giving their details to a political party for a use other than enrolling to vote,” she said.
Last week, a Liberal spokesperson said: “It has long been part of the campaign process that both major parties – and indeed, some independents – offer postal vote applications to voters.”
