More than 2,100 company directors have publicly backed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, showing extensive boardroom support ahead of a history-making referendum on the measure.
Support for the unofficial Directors for the Voice campaign has ballooned ahead of the October 14 vote, which will determine if the Constitution should be amended to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through an independent body capable of advising Parliament.
Requests to join the public register will close 5pm on Thursday, with Directors for the Voice sharing the final tally on Friday.
Alan Jones, startup scene stalwart and director of tech and investments at Third Hemisphere, is among the thousands of directors listed on the register.
Business leaders have a powerful role in the public debate over the Voice, he said, given the way their organisations are enmeshed in the social fabric of Australia.
“You can say that corporations are there to represent the needs of shareholders, and the needs of shareholders solely to get a return on investment, but that’s not always true,” Jones told SmartCompany.
“That’s a very short-term way of looking at things, because when we take steps that are negative for society or for the community that we live in, or the environment that we’re part of… Our long-term interests are not served by only thinking about the short-term interests and financial returns of shareholders.
“Every organisation, no matter how big or small exists in a community, in a society, in a world, that needs us always to be taking a stance on issues, such as the Voice.”
David Kaunitz is a director of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, which has worked to develop clinics for Biripi Aboriginal Medical Service and Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service, among others.
Those successful projects were borne of consultation with local communities, he said, while praising the Voice’s potential to establish stronger consultative pathways at a national level.
Supporting the Voice is “intuitively the right thing to do”, but it also aligns with entrepreneurial ideals, Kaunitz added.
There is around lot of negativity about “all the things that could go wrong with the Voice,” he told SmartCompany.
However, “people in business take risks all the time, people in business try things all the time that they don’t know for sure are going to work, but they try them in a kind of with a mindset of being progressive in some way”.
Addressing undecided voters, and those unsure of the Voice’s potential effects, Kaunitz said it would be a “very simple business decision if your customers came to you and said, ‘We think you should try this’ even if you didn’t know that that was going to work”.
“This is about setting up a framework to solve a problem,” he added.
“It’s not a political issue.”
Paul Zahra, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association, is also listed on the register, with the organisation itself formally in support of the Constitutional amendment.
Earlier signatories include former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell, Sendle co-founder James Chin Moody, and Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott.
Beyond the Directors for the Voice campaign, a growing number of businesses and commercial organisations have taken it upon themselves to share their support ahead of the referendum.
Homewares label Kip&Co, which recently launched a collaboration with long-running Indigenous arts centre Ernabella Arts, voiced its full support for the measure.
“It’s so important to drive awareness for a Voice that recognises and respects 65,000 years of Indigenous culture,” its founders told SmartCompany.
“This is an incredible opportunity to listen to advice from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about matters that affect THEIR lives, so governments make better decisions.”
Supply Nation, an organisation connecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses with the procurement teams at major Australian organisations, also affirmed its support last month.
Despite the growing number of outspoken business voices in favour of the Constitutional amendment, recent opinion poll numbers show strong overall support for the ‘No’ vote.
A Roy Morgan survey of voter sentiment leading up to Sunday found 50% of voters will vote ‘No’, or are leaning towards ‘No’, compared to 45% in the ‘Yes’ or leaning ‘Yes’ camp.
Removing ‘undecided’ voters puts the ‘No’ vote closer to 53%.
“However, past experience with surveys conducted before previous referenda shows that ‘Undecided’ voters are more likely to end up as a ‘No’ rather than a ‘Yes’ vote meaning the actual figure is likely to be a larger majority in favour of ‘No’ than suggested here by these results,” Roy Morgan pollsters said.
‘No’ voters in the business community are potentially less visible than their ‘Yes’-voting counterparts: no comparable Directors for the Voice campaign exists in the negative, and business leaders choosing to vote ‘no’ potentially feel less inclined to advocate for their views publicly.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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