Australia Decides: These Music Companies and Artists Are Voting ‘Yes’ on ‘Voice’

The smell of democracy sausages will fill the air this Saturday (Oct. 14), when millions of Australians cast their votes on the first referendum in almost a quarter century.

An initiative of the Albanese government, the so-called “Voice” referendum will ask voters to fulfil their democratic duty on a single question: whether to change the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Referendums rarely get up.

Historically, Australians have approved just eight out of 44 referendums since federation.

The most recent, the two-question referendum to establishment Australia as a republic, with a president appointed by parliament, was rejected in 1999.

Based on opinion polls, the Yes campaign has a lot of work to do.

In the weeks leading up to the polls, many music industry organisations and artists have made their own voices heard.

Last month, a slew of trade bodies and music companies united for “Music For The Voice,” a cross-industry commitment to the Voice and the “value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices who play an important and crucial role in the industry.”  

Among the organisations on board are AIR, ARIA, Frontier Touring, Live Nation, Live Performance Australia, Mushroom Group, state-based music bodies (Music Tasmania, MusicNSW, MusicSA, QMusic), PPCA, Secret Sounds, Sony Music Entertainment, Support Act, UNIFIED Music Group, Universal Music Australia and Warner Music Australia.

Check out some of the reaction below from Yes campaigners within the music community.

Read more on the Voice referendum here and here.

ARIA

Music has the power to bridge gaps and bring people together, no matter who they are or where they come from.

It is our belief in the unifying force of music that inspires us to support this historical moment and announce our commitment to a yes vote in the upcoming referendum.

ARIA values and gives thanks to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the immeasurable influence over the music and art we all enjoy.

We want to see a future where all voices are heard and where Indigenous Australians have a real say in shaping the decisions that affect their lives.

We believe that embracing this decision only brings positive outcomes. We see a country where we are proud to celebrate the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through music, through song – a place where those voices are amplified, stories told, and talents cherished.

Together, we can create an inclusive music industry that reflects the true diversity of our nation.

Together, we share a vision for our nation’s future that values diversity, inclusivity, and the rights of the Traditional Custodians of this country we call home.

Together, we walk towards a better future. And the future sounds good.

A.B. ORIGINAL

Briggs

It’s important that we continue to work towards better outcomes for Blackfullas. With this referendum we stand to make a gain towards those better outcomes. We won’t see the big effects of a YES vote the next day, but we’re going to see it in 5 years down the track. The alternative to voting Yes just reinforces racism, and puts us in a worse position than where we are now. It feels like the alternate to YES is extremely detrimental.

I was inspired by Paul Kelly to put out his track. We can’t let PK be the only fella doing it. We’re A.B Original. We’re the most important hip hop outfit in the country when it comes to this. If we’re not leading the way on this stuff, who is? If we’re not standing up and setting the standard, who is?

This is what we are supposed to do as hip hop artists. If we didn’t do this, there’s a big piece missing. Hip Hop is all about voice, and all about community rallying together. This is what Hip Hop is for. This is exactly what we’re meant to be doing 

Trials

A track like Yes is important at this stage of the referendum timeline because an understandable distrust of the government and the millions of dollars slush-funded into outrage algorithms has led to a large part of Australia that you can usually count on in progressive matters still being apathetic to this issue.

Eighty per cent of Indigenous people are on record supporting it. Australia still saying, No, is the very definition of why our voice must be heard.

When the Yes / No pamphlet arrived in my family’s letterbox it was more than a voting guide, for me it was attack on my children’s innocence.

Explaining to a 7-years old who’s only care in the world is Pokemon that the entire country is currently having a conversation about you and whether or not you’re allowed to be involved in conversations in the future is a claustrophobia I wish no parent ever again has to feel.

I wanted to answer the No campaign’s attempt at making us feel ashamed of promoting the truth and ask them why are we, as the lucky, ‘fair go’ country, so keen to set the bar on equity so low?

A No vote sends the message that who we are as First Nations peoples and what we want, never did and still doesn’t matter. A No vote is the country agreeing to treat Aboriginal people speaking on behalf of ourselves for ourselves, as an annoyance.

It gives the country permission to move further way from the appreciation we deserve and headfirst into angst. The No pamphlet points to ’not being able to shut it up’ once established.

Well, they are saying the quiet part out loud, because the cruelty is and always has been the point. A Yes result is important because up until now all we have known is, No.

AWMA

Australian Women in Music Awards (AWMA) acknowledges the importance of working with First Nations people to develop and maintain authentic, respectful partnerships.

AWMA especially acknowledges the role of First Nations women in the Australian music industry and the important voice that they have had in the past and continue to have today as well as in shaping the nation’s future.

AWMA also acknowledge past injustices and harm caused to First Nations people as a result of the impact of colonisation.

We stand in solidarity with First Nations people and proudly support the ‘YES’ campaign to amend the Constitution to ensure that First Nations voices are heard loudly and clearly on all matters that affect them.

This statement reaffirms our ongoing commitment to justice, healing and reconciliation in acknowledging the rightful place of First Nations people in this country.

Jack River

Before I played We Are The Youth at Splendour In The Grass I asked the crowd to do one thing this year – have a conversation with a First Nations friend or mob in your community about the Voice to Parliament.

What would it mean to them? How do they feel about it? Why might they be sceptical?

What’s it been like to watch this debate play out? It doesn’t matter your stance, we have an opportunity to open a national conversation about truth, change, understanding and community.

The most powerful conversations are had 1:1, at kitchen tables, at family dinners, in community halls.

Whatever we do this year, let’s break the silence. 

Jimmy Barnes

We all need to come together, we need to talk, we all need to listen. The more we reach out to each other and work together the better life’s going to be for all of us. YES.

It was great to be a part of such a positive gathering today. We all need to come together, we need to talk, we all need to listen. The more we reach out to each other & work together the better life’s going to be for all of us. YES. @mahaliabarnes @Briggs pic.twitter.com/Ttt3poeB4H

— Jimmy Barnes (@JimmyBarnes) October 6, 2023

John Farnham

Bernard Fanning

I know that there are a lot of opinions about the validity of The Voice. I am in no doubt that Yes is the vote I will be submitting.

YES to an acknowledgement that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people inhabited our country for millennia before the arrival of the British and the subsequent Australian nation.  It is an indisputable fact.

Also, YES to an advisory body that will help make the decision making process that directly impacts the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, more effective.  This is a very rare opportunity for Australians to make a contribution to improving the circumstances that many of our First Nations communities are expected to endure. The statistics that detail the relative disadvantage in Health, Education, Employment, Housing and Justice, speak for themselves.

If you are yet to make up your mind about how you will vote in the upcoming poll please make the effort to read the (one page) Uluru Statement From The Heart, which is a collective statement from representatives of First Nations communities from all over the country. It was  made after extensive, years long consultation amongst those groups.  It is an appeal to walk together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into a more just future for the whole country.

Jaddan Comerford (UNIFIED Music Group CEO)

UNIFIED Music Group says YES to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

In the music and entertainment industries we continue to benefit and learn from the music, cultures, survival and storytelling of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and now we believe it’s time to do more.

We want to open up the dialogue between First Nations people and our decision makers. We want to hear their knowledge, wisdom and stories. We want to listen. And we want to learn.

Once the Voice to Parliament is enshrined in the Constitution, then there will be time and opportunities for more listening and learning, so we can walk together towards a better future. We invite you to walk with us.

All you have to say is ‘YES’.

Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC)

The Board of the Australian Live Music Business Council (ALMBC), the nation’s peak live music business council, has announced it supports the Voice to Parliament as a fundamental pillar of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

After consideration and discussion with our First Nations members and the Community, the ALMBC Board of Directors proudly stands together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in support of the establishment of a constitutionally enshrined Voice that acknowledges the First Nations people of this country we live in.

The ALMBC is a national business council representing concert and festival promoters, event presenters, venues, booking agents, artists, DJs, technical crew, show crew, show labour, venue staff, ticketing companies, merchandise companies, catering companies, venue workers… indeed anyone whose primary vocation is in the live music sector. The board comprises people from around the country, cross-sector, evenly split on gender and with dedicated First Nations Board Members (currently from Wamba Wamba / Dhuhoroa and Yalanji Nations).

Stephen Wade (ALMBC chair)

We at the ALMBC support the Uluru Statement from the Heart which calls for the Establishment of a First Nations Voice to Parliament, enshrined in the Constitution.

On that basis, we will formally be supporting the YES vote in the upcoming referendum”

The ALMBC notes that the live music industry in this country also needs to be better and listen more to First Nations people both as custodians, music lovers and as industry workers and businesses.

As locally owned businesses in the live music industry, we have an obligation to know more about what country we operate in, who the custodians are, what languages they speak and what has happened historically where we live and work. We believe there is nothing to lose and much more to gain as a country, in our communities, and among our people by voting YES.

We need to bring that conversation to the front of our interactions with our First Nations colleagues and communities so the process of truth-telling can commence and we can all contribute to a shared understanding, vision and partnership of what we want our future to look like.

We see The Voice as integral to how we want Australia to be moving forward.

We urge our members as they are sitting in live music venues, at concerts and festivals around the country, while waiting for the show to start, to stay informed and to have conversations with colleagues about what kind of country we want to live in. We are holding hands with the community of everyday homegrown music businesses who wish to bring people together, make people’s lives better, empower truth, treaty and to bring this nation’s unique identity to the forefront of our shared culture.

By providing our support for the YES campaign we want to demonstrate the role the live music industry can play in
bringing together the broader public to consider why a YES is going to be good for everyone.

GANGgajang

Dan Sultan

Paul Kelly

Midnight Oil

How you vote is obviously totally up to you but we’ve decided to run a radio advertising campaign urging people not to fall for all the bullshit that’s being thrown around by the NO campaign. Just don’t let anyone treat you like a mug – if you don’t know, find out!

Go to https://www.yes23.com.au/vote_yes

Missy Higgins

Busby Marou

We are not a political band and this is not a political stance. It is the right stance. We hope more than anything that our music and values might help convince those undecided to make the right decision and vote YES.

MARLON

Leaning on the universal language of music to support the enshrinement of a First Nations Voice into the Australian constitution. 

John Butler

Music For The Voice

We are a united group of music and entertainment industry individuals, organisations, and businesses. The music we all create, perform, and share on this country, is inextricably connected to the oldest continuing culture on earth. 

“We all continue to benefit from First Nations people, their cultural knowledge, their connection to the lands, and their storytelling. We value that culture and we value the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“United in this belief, together we accept the gracious invitation to all Australians in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Today we say YES with open hearts and open minds for an Indigenous Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

“We walk together towards a better future. Will you walk with us?

Live Performance Australia

The Executive Council of Live Performance Australia accepts the invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk with First Nations people to create a better future.

As part of this journey, we support the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice enshrined in the Constitution so that the experiences, concerns and aspirations of First Nations people and communities are heard by Parliament and the Government.

We believe that the upcoming referendum is a unique opportunity for national reflection upon our past, and the creation of a new and respectful shared future through consultation and actions taken in the present.

As the national body which represents arts and entertainment companies that employ and collaborate with artists, performers, creative and technical workers across the breadth of our industry, Live Performance Australia is itself taking time to consult and contemplate how the voices of our First Nations companies and people can be better heard within our own organisation.

We acknowledge there is a diversity of views around the specific referendum proposal, including among First Nations people themselves. We encourage and support our members to engage in open and respectful conversation to make a personal, informed referendum decision.

We are privileged to continue a tradition of story telling through theatre, dance and music which is part of a continuum on the country of the world’s longest surviving Indigenous cultures.

We encourage our members to take up this historic opportunity to walk together towards a better future.

Richard Evans (LPA president)

The referendum is an important opportunity to continue the work of reconciliation through recognising and listening better to First Nations people.

The Executive Council believes it has an important role to play in showing leadership on behalf of the Australian live arts and entertainment industry on an issue that is important to many of our members and their people.

Support for the referendum proposal is a practical way of demonstrating our commitment to listening to First Nations people and an important step in building a better future for all Australians.

Songlines Aboriginal Music Corporation