Major No donor looking to defeat the Voice is an investor in

Major No donor looking to defeat the Voice is an investor in Indigenous land ventures

He made a fortune on Wall Street, crusades against the radical left and dismisses human-induced climate change as "alarmism".

At the last federal election, he funded a conspiracy theorist candidate and he now runs an investment fund focused on Indigenous land projects.

Meet Simon Fenwick, 53, one of the No campaign's most influential donors.

Born in Oxford to a Rhodes scholar father and educated at Brisbane Grammar School, Mr Fenwick went on to become an investment manager in London and New York before settling on Sydney's lower north shore.

He has so far contributed $750,000 to the campaign against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, run by the conservative lobby group Advance Australia, The Australian reports.

The Australian Electoral Commission is not due to release its data about referendum donors until next year but large corporations such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Commonwealth Bank and Wesfarmers have each publicly pledged millions of dollars to the Yes campaign.

"The problem is, the campaign has been so woeful, that the more they spend, the more they lose, because they're not saying the right things to soft and swinging voters," said marketer and former campaign strategist Toby Ralph.

"So in this case having a massive war chest has actually damaged the Yes case."

On the No side, Clive Palmer committed to spend $2 million.

But it is Advance Australia — launched in 2018 as a conservative answer to GetUp! — that has emerged as the most powerful opponent of the Voice.

While it derides the politics of "inner city elites", Advance Australia in the past has received donations from wealthy business figures living in some of the eastern seaboard's most expensive suburbs.

The Brisbane Broncos chairman Karl Morris, Sam Kennard of Kennards Storage and Marcus Blackmore, a former owner of Blackmores vitamins, all contributed in 2022.

'Putting my money where my mouth is'
Mr Fenwick is the largest known donor to Advance Australia, which is behind the Fair Australia campaign.

Electoral records from before the referendum campaign show he and his wife had donated $1.4 million to the organisation, which counts former prime minister Tony Abbott as an advisor, and whose Voice campaign is fronted by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the Opposition's Indigenous Affairs spokesperson.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is," Mr Fenwick said in a 2020 speech.

"If we wait, it'll be too late not only for us, but more importantly, for our kids and grandkids."

His speech warned of an "organised socialist threat" and criticised "prosperity-destroying climate gestures".

"It's pretty clear that he considers himself to be an ideological warrior of the right," said Josh Roose, an associate professor of political sociology at Deakin University.

"He rails very powerfully against what he considers to be the cultural Marxism that's underpinning Australian politics. He talks about brainwashing, identity politics, he rails against climate change."

Mr Fenwick has contributed $365,000 to the Liberal Party, $75,000 to the Liberal Democrats and $25,000 to the anti-Chinese Communist Party activist Drew Pavlou.

At the last federal election he also donated $24,500 to Michelle Wilde, a conspiracy theorist One Nation candidate.

Ms Wilde, the owner of a Brisbane real estate business, denies COVID-19 and used her platform to spread misinformation about vaccines, the US election and climate change.

Ms Wilde belongs to the anti-authority Freedom Movement, which helped promote rallies against the Voice last month.

While Advance Australia did not endorse these rallies, Dr Roose argues the group has a number of interests in common with the Freedom Movement, including an opposition to trans activists and climate change denial.

"Certainly, there's an ideological overlap, if not a people to people overlap," Dr Roose says.
Advance Australia in December posted a meme suggesting both climate change and COVID-19 were tools used by a political class to accumulate power and take money from ordinary people.

The group is campaigning for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to dump the Coalition's commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Mr Fenwick, meanwhile, has complained about his daughters being forced to watch "Al Gore nonsense movies" about what he calls "climate alarmism".

Interest in Indigenous affairs
When it comes to Indigenous affairs, Mr Fenwick is a philanthropist, having funded an academic award at the Australian National University and donated $1.3 million for regional and Indigenous students at his old school, Brisbane Grammar School.

"There's no doubt that Aboriginal people are falling well behind and have been, despite all the other silly well-intentioned, plans from previous governments, you know, apologies, and so forth," he said in a radio interview in April.

But Mr Fenwick's interest in Indigenous affairs is not solely political or philanthropic.

He is also a director and shareholder of New Harvest Investment Management, a private company seeking to raise more than $50 million to invest in joint ventures with Indigenous landholders.

"Investments are made to assist traditional owners unlock the value of their land in agricultural and carbon projects," the New Harvest website says of the fund, which has attracted $10 million from the National Australia Bank.

Professor Heidi Norman, an associate dean of Indigenous studies at UTS and a supporter of the Voice, says carbon reduction and clean energy projects represent a huge opportunity for Indigenous people.

But Professor Norman warns previous collaborations between Indigenous groups and business, many involving mining, have not given sufficient benefit to Indigenous Australians.

"In order for this rapid transformation to not be another experience of dispossession, then it's really important that there is good representation to government," she said.

"I see a rep body and the Voice as being a really huge utility for local Aboriginal land holders and communities as they enter into negotiations, say in relation to the clean energy transformation.

"It will be one way to correct that power and resource and political imbalance."

New Harvest has also acted as a consultant to government, receiving nearly $500,000 from the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation across 2020 and 2021 to advise on agriculture business models and the divestment of land.

The company, which last year won a contract from the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation to manage two cattle stations on the Cape York peninsula, did not respond to questions.

Mr Fenwick did not respond to detailed questions about his politics and business interests.

Advance Australia declined to answer questions about its biggest donors, climate change and the Freedom Movement.

The group instead responded with a statement, including: "We are working to defend and advance our nation's freedom, prosperity and security and we frankly do not care what the ABC thinks of that."

Advance Australia's 'permanent campaign capacity'
Marketing expert, Toby Ralph, says Advance Australia could have persuaded more undecided voters during the Voice referendum had it chosen different messaging.

"I see their messages as very right-wing and they would prosper a lot more were they closer to the centre," he said.

But Mr Ralph says the referendum also presents an opportunity.

"Through something like the Voice, they are likely to expand their database, they're likely to expand their donor base, they're likely to have more resources and a greater reputation as the end consequence, assuming the Yes case loses," he said.

After the vote, the group looks set to continue campaigning on its core issues and during elections, using what Mr Fenwick has described in a speech as "world class" campaign infrastructure.

"This is what a permanent campaign capacity looks like," he said. "And we're only just beginning."