Indigenous Voice to Parliament pamphlet a ‘missed opportunity’

Labor has “missed a huge opportunity” to roll out truth in political advertising laws, experts say, as pamphlets outlining the Yes and No cases for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament are readied for distribution without being fact-checked.

On Tuesday the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) published the Yes and No cases that will form an educational pamphlet to be distributed to the homes of all voters ahead of the referendum later this year. Neither campaign, however, is required by law to peg its campaign messaging to facts.

In Australia, the Electoral Act outlaws misleading voters on the machinations of an election or referendum, like how to cast a vote or how votes are handled. But the act doesn’t account for how one campaign might try to mischaracterise the other, and how each might try to mislead voters.