Fact-checking for the "No" referendum pamphlet was not compulsory

www.theguardian.com The no pamphlet: campaign’s voice to parliament referendum essay – annotated and factchecked

Pamphlets written by politicians and published by the AEC have put the official case for a yes and no vote. They were not independently factchecked before publication, so Guardian Australia has added notes to the full essays to help you make better sense of them

Includes some useful answers to concerns people may have about voting yes.

14 comments

High school essays require a higher referencing standard than this.

Was there no requirements for the essays to be factual? I honestly can't understand how or why blatenet and provable falsehoods were aloud to be in this important document?

Why is the AEC so fucking spineless against right wing lies?
Every time they pull some dodgy voting shit, they get away scotfree.
- To be fair it’s not the AEC’s fault. In order to get the coalition’s support, Labor decided to not require fact checking. Seems like an own-goal to me.
  
  So they've just turned the AEC I to a misinformation peddler, excellent.
  
  Why do you think labor were involved in deciding no fact checking? Has there been fact checking before?
  I thought the convention was the politicians that vote on having a referendum decide the language. The No voters decide on no. The yes voters decide on yes.

They might spend 780 million dollars on this whole thing so it's worth having a referendum and all the related conversations. A year ago we spent 780 billion on submarines and not a single person I know said a thing.

It is abundantly clear that the alleged 'journalist' responsible for fact-checking this had an ulterior motive.
The High Court does interpret constitutional legislation
The ambiguity does include a risk of delays and dysfunction due to poor wording in the proposed legislation
Australians wanting to know what they are actually voting for is not 'misinformation'.
...
I stopped wasting my time here. It is clear that whomever did this assessment was being disingenuous. Won't waste my time reading further.

The Guardian 'journalist': This is a valid point, but I don't like it, therefore, I dub thee 'misinformation/disputed'.
I'm glad I had these smrat (sic) people here to think for me.
- I think you are confusing valid concern with valid point. None of the information in the "No" pamphlet is based on fact, only conjecture based on possibilities.
  The concerns about the voice to parliament made by the "No" campaign is based on what could happen if we implemented a voice poorly, not what will happen if we added a few lines to the constitution making a voice mandatory.
  While it's splitting hairs I believe that the No campaigns arguments don't really amount to much beyond scare mongering. The question asked (as I understand it) is should a voice to parliament be made a mandatory part of our constitution. With the government of the day deciding its scope.
  The dreamer in me wants to think we can solve the problems of Australia without making mandatory what should be a given. The realist in me understands that sometimes you have to spell it out to stop those in power forgetting.

14 comments