The Australian Electoral Commission has started their information campaign, aiming to clear up any false information regarding the referendum process.
Notably the commission won’t be clearing up information regarding the inner workings of the Voice, the campaign will focus on details of the referendum process only.
AEC Spokesperson, Pat Callanan says that the commission is aiming to clear misinformation.
“We’ve recently released our disinformation register on referendums, and we’re seeing some confusion about what a referendum is and how it works,
A big one we’re working to correct is clarifying that the 2017 marriage law postal survey was not a referendum.
That was run by the Bureau of Statistics, where as the last referendum was in 1999.
So it’ll mean you’ll have to turn up in person to vote just like in an election it won’t be delivered to you as a unless you specifically apply for it,” he said.
Callanan says that the commission will soon be publishing materials in at least 30 different dialects including Indigenous languages.
“Part of that will be releasing more and more translated material within the coming months.”
The AEC will also be continuing to increase enrollment numbers in rural communities.
“It’s something we’ve been focusing on for quite some time now.
So we’re really happy to see that there has been a boost to Indigenous enrollment figures at the start of this year.
That’s something we’re really proud of and we want to keep seeing that number increase before every election and referendum,” Callanan said.
For more information on referendums head to aec.gov.au/referendums
Listen to the full interview with AEC Spokesperson Pat Callanan here:
Image Credit: AEC Images
