Federal election 2025: Advance unveils anti-Albanese ad as it prepares to release war chest

The right-wing campaign group Advance is preparing to blitz the internet with a brutal new ad reviving the Prime Minister’s failed Voice referendum campaign that labels Anthony Albanese as “weak, woke and sending you broke.”

The ad shows a glum Mr Albanese wearing a Yes hoodie during the failed Voice referendum campaign, which Advance spent $15 million helping defeat.

According to the group, the word weak is coloured yellow to get the message across that the PM is as “weak as urine”.

The word “woke” is written in purple to highlight the DEI activists trans flag and “sending you broke” is in orange-red to denote the cost of living crisis and the country’s financial accounts being in the red.

The activist group is aiming to spend $5 million on getting the ad in front of Australian voters on digital platforms ahead of the election.

Speculation was swirling that Mr Albanese could make the trip to Government House as soon as Sunday to call an election for April 12 but that visit could be put on hold by the impending landfall of Cyclone Alfred on the east coast. The federal election date could still be set as late as May 17.

Advance is setting a further $5 million aside to fund ads attacking the Greens with the key message that the minor party has abandoned its environmental roots.

Advance’s executive director Matthew Sheahan told The Nightly that Advance had spent a year campaigning against the Greens’ policies on inheritance tax, decriminalising drugs, and increasing immigration.

“And we have no intention of slowing down, our supporters have made it clear - stop a Labor-Green minority government at all cost,” he said.

“And so we are kicking off our ‘Weak, woke, sending us broke’ campaign against the Prime Minister Albanese and the Labor Party.

“Whether its the Chinese warships off our coast, or the violence and division in our streets impacting Jewish Australians, the PM has shown to be the weakest leader Australia has ever had.

“Australia has had enough of a woke agenda of shoving political correctness down our throats, attempts by the Government to ban free speech on social media and trying to shame people into voting for the terrible Voice referendum.”

“Australians have had enough.”

Kos Samaras, a former Labor Party strategist and co-founder of the bipartisan research firm Redbridge Group, said Mr Albanese was a rich target.

“Albanese’s personal brand has gone through a number of changes,” he said.

“In 2022, it was the bloke you would be happy to have a beer with.

“ In 2025, it’s someone who you think is still nice but unreliable and unrelateable.

“Any campaign that focuses on these traits will make it much harder for Labor.”

Advance, formed in 2018, is the right’s answer to union-backed lobby group GetUp!, which played a pivotal role in early digital campaigning in the late 2000s and which contributed to Kevin Rudd’s landslide win in 2007 by targeting John Howard’s WorkChoices legislation.

Advance’s team is small – comprising around 26 people – and is based around the country with their headquarters in Canberra. It is funded through a mix of grassroots and single donors.

The Nightly has viewed the organisation’s live dashboard, which reveals Advance has around 35,000 donors and around 355,000 supporters.

It has raised a war chest of around $32 million since it began in 2018.

While it has no formal affiliation with the Liberal party its biggest donor last year was the McCormack Foundation, a Liberal party investment group which donated $500,000 last financial year and worked closely with opposition frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who spearheaded the No campaign against the Voice.

Advance raked in more than $15.6m in the 2023-24 financial year, up from $5.2m the year before, according to the latest Australian Electoral Commission’s disclosure figures.