Referendum marketing ignored multicultural audiences
Multicultural audiences were largely left out of the Voice debate, with new polling showing a large, overlooked segment of the voting population.
Multicultural engagement organisation, CulturalPulse, surveyed 728 people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities, about the referendum.
More than one in five people in CALD communities are still undecided, compared to just 7% of the non-CALD population.
16 per cent of people in CALD communities had not seen any ‘No’ campaign information, while the ‘Yes’ campaign had a much better reach, with only 7% haven’t not seen ‘Yes’ campaign material.
However, it’s doubtful how much good this campaigning did. The sentimental tone of the You’re The Voice campaign, with its unifying Australian moments, such as Cathy Freeman’s gold medal race (and Farnesy’s mullet) going right over the heads of CALD communities.
CulturalPulse asked respondents to identify who the singer of ‘You’re The Voice In’ – only 26% of Central and South American voters were aware of John Farnham, while only 52% of people with an Asian background were familiar with the song.
Australians either born overseas, or with at least one parent born overseas, make up over half of Australia’s population. CulturalPulse predicts that up to 10% of all votes could still be up for grabs within CALD communities.
The top five undecided communities are Middle East and/or Arab (33 per cent), East Asian, including Japan and China (33 per cent), Southeast Asian including Philippines and Vietnam (23 per cent), Central or South American (22 per cent) and South Asian, including India and Pakistan (20 per cent).
Only 31 per cent of CALD respondents have “actively engaged in discussions about the Voice Referendum”, compared to 64 per cent of Anglo-Celtic voters. This drops to lower levels in various communities: just 4% of Middle East/Arab, 13% of South Asian and 7% of East Asian segments have discussed the referendum.
Of those who have decided, 43 per cent of CALD audiences plan to vote ‘Yes’, while 20% will vote ‘No’.
“Neither campaign has been truly effective in engaging with CALD audiences and it’s emblematic of a larger issue we have seen – where Australian businesses and political groups put multiculturalism in the ‘too hard’ basket,” CulturalPulse CEO Reg Raghavan said.
“These groups have very different values systems and ways of communicating to Anglo Australian audiences, so to ignore them is irresponsible, ineffective and a waste of money.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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