Nine newspapers apologises for running Advance's 'sexist and racist' Voice ad

The cartoon advertisement, authorised by the Advance group and run in the Nine newspaper the Australian Financial Review, shows female MP Kate Chaney sitting as princess child on the knee of her father, Wesfarmers chairman and Yes23 director Michael Chaney, while he hands wads of cash to Thomas Mayo, an Aboriginal man and yes campaigner depicted as a desperate child.

Mr Mayo, a unionist, is described in the ad as a "radical activist" and is wearing a red hammer and sickle t-shirt.

"The political advertisement about The Voice Referendum placed into today's Financial Review should not have run and we apologise for that," a Nine spokesperson has told The Canberra Times. "We want to encourage a mature debate from both sides and avoid personal and/or inappropriate attacks."

The Advance ad is headlined, "Don't worry sweetheart, it's just shareholders money."

The criticism of the ad was led by NSW state Liberal MP and former state treasurer Matt Kean, who said the ad was using a "racist trope of Thomas Mayo" and offering a throwback to the "Jim Crow era of the Deep South" of American politics.

The Canberra Times has sought comment from Mr Mayo.

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Ms Chaney described it as a disappointing personal attack from the "no" campaign, while fellow teal MP Sophie Scamps took aim at the Financial Review for publishing the "sexist and racist" ad. "Totally f*d up Disgraceful," she tweeted.

Advance and prominent "no" campaigners such as Warren Mundine "utterly" rejected the premise that the cartoon is racist.

"There it is again, the Yes campaign elites playing the race card straight off the top of the deck," a spokesman for Advance said.

"Matt Kean can keep his elitist Sydney views to himself, Lisa Wilkinson, and Peter FitzSimons.

"It is a parody of the close relationship between Teal politicians, do-gooder corporate elites and the radical activists of the Yes campaign, such as Thomas Mayo."

The ad has received widespread condemnation, but it was backed by Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey as a caricature and cartoon.

"There are a lot of people getting very precious," she told the ABC.

The controversial ad comes a day after the Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney called out Fair Australia and condemned the "post-truth", polarising Trump-style offerings from the official "no" campaign.

It is run in the business oriented newspaper in a week where there has been intense debate over big business supporting the "yes" campaigns through corporate donations. The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Wednesday described them as "corporate elites" and "multimillionaires who are running huge publicly listed companies".