Legendary Aussie rocker and longtime activist Peter Garrett has revealed his band Midnight Oil plan to fund a series of ads supporting the Yes campaign for the coming Voice referendum.
Speaking at an event in Adelaide yesterday, the 70-year-old former Labor politician said his Oils bandmates had “put aside a shoe full of loose change” to fund an ad campaign aimed at the Voice’s most vehement opponents – middle-aged men.
“We probably want to play some ads on Triple M-type FM rock radio stations to appeal to males over 50, who don’t want to vote for the voice,” Garrett said, his comments reported on The Australian.
“It’s not only them now, as you will have seen from the latest polling, who are becoming more reluctant about supporting the Voice. I think there’s a broader discussion there.”
Garrett admitted that current polls that showed a convincing win to the No’s “are not encouraging” but, he added, “a week in politics is a long time”.
“It’s a very long time for those who are undecided… to come to a view and for those who think it should happen to prosecute our case,” Garret said.
“We respect people, and they can take it however they wish.
“If someone wants to dance half-drunk to a Midnight Oil song and also be looking the other way at the show, then that’s fine,” he said.
The Oils join a number of prominent Aussie musicians who’ve publicly endorsed the Voice and have planned concerts to help promote the Yes vote. These include Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Bernard Fanning, Mia Wray, Dan Sultan and rockers Spiderbait.
Garrett’s concerns about “males over 50” follows adland sage Adam Ferrier’s very own campaign to sway “bogans” to vote Yes. Read B&T’s reporting on that HERE.
Ferrier telling Seven’s Sunrise: “What I want to see is the bogans of Australia unite for yes. I want to see Lleyton Hewitt, Sophie Monk, Mick Molloy, Karl Stefanovic, Kyle Sandilands – get all the bogans of Australia voting yes, add a cracking soundtrack, maybe from Barnesy and get middle Australia talking to middle Australia,” he said.
