Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
AAP
AAP
Politics
Dominic Giannini and Tess Ikonomou

Concerns over voice misinformation as voter roll closes

The prime minister is imploring voters to ignore fear campaigns on the voice proposal. (Diego Fedele/AAP PHOTOS)

Voters are being urged to check their enrolment ahead of the referendum, as the prime minister warns of misinformation over the Indigenous voice to parliament.

Monday is the last day people can enrol or update their details to vote in the October 14 referendum.

The deadline comes as Anthony Albanese said there was a "lot of misinformation" about the referendum, but the vote itself was straightforward.

"It'll be like the apology to stolen generations, or like marriage equality - where once it happened, all of the fear campaigns just melted away into nothing because they weren't based in fact," he told 2SER Radio on Monday.

"No country was ever changed for the better through a fear campaign."

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pledged a coalition government would not enter into treaties, which would only "see rich lawyers in Sydney and Melbourne get richer".

"I do support recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution. I wish that were the question now," he told reporters in Melbourne. 

"On October 14, he (the prime minister) is going to split the country straight down the middle and I think he has a lot to answer for this train wreck of a campaign."

Indigenous leader and 'yes' campaigner Noel Pearson said momentum for the voice was rising. 

"We feel the cause of unity is upon us," he told a rally in Sydney.

"We're gonna transcend our political tribes. This is the moment where we're going to transcend those affiliations and come together as Australians."

Prominent 'no' campaigner Warren Mundine said the referendum debate had been nothing but divisive, and he had witnessed the most racial abuse and lies "spitted out" in years.

"If we want to move forward as a nation, then we have to come together, we have to get sit down and work through it," he told 2GB radio.

Former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister John Anderson said while more work was needed to close the wellbeing gap, he didn't believe in locking a "race-based" entity into the constitution.

"Racism is a form of hatred. Hatred is unbelievably destructive. Hatred should have no place in this debate," he told ABC radio.

ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said colonisation and intergenerational trauma were still largely felt by Indigenous people.

Her comments were at odds with voice opponents Mr Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who have questioned the ongoing effects of colonisation.

But Ms Stephen-Smith said the science was clear about the impacts of the stolen generation.

Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said more than 240,000 enrolment transactions had been submitted, or 15,000 a day, since the announcement of the vote.

"Don't delay - if you do, you could be one of the very few eligible people out there not ready to vote in the first referendum in nearly a quarter of a century," Mr Rogers said.

There are more than 17.5 million people on the electoral roll, with at least 97.5 per cent of eligible Australians registered.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.