PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese has announced the Voice to Parliament referendum will be held on October 14, leaving the Yes and No campaigns with less than six weeks to make their cases to Australians.

With the circulation of misleading information a major feature of the referendum debate so far, Yes23 Campaign Director Dean Parkin encouraged Australians last week to administer “the antidote to misinformation” by engaging in fact-based conversations with family and friends.

“We’re on the final sprint – but to get over the line, we’re going to need all hands on deck.

“This referendum was never going to be easy, important things rarely are.

“We’ve seen the No campaign use untruths and disinformation to confuse Australians.

“Their campaign is obsessed with creating division rather than real ideas and practical solutions to make people’s lives better.”

AAP FactCheck Editor Ben James told News Of The Area that the AAP team had published more than 60 fact checks relating to the Voice.

Mr James’ team attempts to check the veracity of news and social media content ‘through rigorous questioning, careful consideration of evidence and verification using multiple sources’.

“The majority of the misinformation/disinformation we’ve encountered has come from those against the proposed Voice,” Mr James said.

“However, it is inaccurate to say this is all from the official ‘no’ camp.”

Mr James said much of the misinformation his team is reviewing is shared on social media, where it is often difficult to confirm the identity of the person/group making the claim.

“When assessing misinformation, we’re primarily dealing with the substance of the claim itself.

“We are generally not looking at the person making the claim or their motivations.

“We see a lot of misleading statements and comments lacking context but the outright falsehoods tend to come from social media users, some of whom are anonymous,” Mr James said.

Professor Jolanda Jetten, Head of the University of Queensland’s School of Psychology, told NOTA the Voice referendum debate had become “a war zone”.

“What you have here is two very clear camps: the yes vote and the no vote,” Professor Jetten said.

“Everything is allowed and misinformation is of course a very powerful weapon in that battle,” she said.

Professor Jetten, who has compiled research on the factors behind conspiratorial thinking, said misinformation had a long history of being weaponised for political purposes.

“If you look historically in the US when you had the witch hunts of the communists, it was a very similar sort of phenomena.

“You had so much misinformation and conspiracy theorising about communism infiltrating all sorts of American society.

“When you have such a strong us versus them situation, misinformation is a very powerful tool; to confuse them and to get them ready for your view or your message.

“It is no longer a debate, it is a battle.”

Despite its storied history, Professor Jetten said misinformation is near impossible to combat effectively.

“It is very difficult.

“There is a responsibility on everyone to stick to the facts but clearly if those rules are not obeyed by all players, there is not much you can do about it.

“The politicians themselves are a big part of the misinformation.

“Of course it would help if there were stronger rules in Australia around misinformation and an independent body who could regulate that and make sure it can’t do the damage that it does.”

By Doug CONNOR