'Yes' campaign need to call out misinformation: senator

An Indigenous senator says the ‘yes’ campaign for the voice has a responsibility to call out misinformation on the proposal. As debate on the constitutional reform is set to continue in the Senate on Wednesday night, assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said she remained confident of the voice’s success. «We have to call out misinformation and disinformation and we also have to give an assurance that there is a reason why we are going down this path,» she told ABC TV on Wednesday. «It is a path that I do believe and have said from the beginning that is about Australia … it does mean that we are going to struggle with issues but I do still believe we will come out the other side of this.» The comments came after Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the ‘no’ campaign was importing Trump-style politics into the country and was actively using misinformation ahead of the referendum. «Its aim is to polarise people, and its weapon of choice is misinformation,» she said on Tuesday night. Senator McCarthy said the campaign for the voice would ramp up following the bill passing through parliament. «Once we get this bill through … this will be in the hands of the people who really know what the decision should be,» she said. The Senate is debating the final form of the referendum and proposed constitutional change, with a vote expected to be held next week. The referendum is slated between October and December. However, Liberal backer of the voice Andrew Bragg hit out at the government for not being willing to find a greater middle ground with the coalition in order to ensure the referendum’s success. Senator Bragg said the parliamentary committee process that examined the referendum bill was rushed. «The reality is now we face a referendum with a very small centre ground,» he told parliament «I regret that this opportunity has been lost in history. «I think we’ll look back on this report and this committee process and think, penipu ‘Well, that was the last chance we had to try and build out some centre ground’, which I think is going to be essential if this is going to be a successful referendum.» The committee process, which ran for several weeks, recommended parliament pass the laws to set up the referendum without any changes. However, Senator Bragg said the question that will be put to the public at the referendum could have been strengthened to ensure its success. «The idea that there’s no way that this wording could have been improved, I think, is fundamentally untrue,» he said.