"‘Has to be genuine’: Corporate Australia urged to hold firm on Indigenous reconciliation", 15 October 2023

Australia’s biggest businesses and companies that threw their weight behind the Voice have been urged by corporate leaders and consumer experts to stay the course on Indigenous reconciliation despite the referendum’s defeat.

Over 2000 Australian board directors added their name to Directors for the Voice, co-convened by Ming Long, who sits on the board of Telstra and IFM Investors and chairs Diversity Council Australia, and Nora Scheinkestel, who is on the board of Westpac and Origin Energy, to support the Indigenous advisory body.

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Many of Australia’s biggest companies, including the big four banks, supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles, Qantas, Telstra, mining giants BHP, Rio Tinto and Woodside had publicly signalled support for a Yes result, with some tipping millions into the Yes23 campaign. In August, Qantas unveiled the Yes23 campaign logo on three aircraft at a media event attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Wesfarmers, which tipped $2 million to the Yes campaign, on Sunday said it respected the outcome of the referendum.

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Qantas was one of many big companies that called for constitutional recognition of First Nations people in 2014. The company also supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2019.

Commonwealth Bank chair Paul O’Malley used his chairman’s address at the bank’s annual general meeting, ahead of the referendum, to explain why CBA had decided to take a position of support for the Voice.

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