Warren Mundine distances himself from 'fear over facts' 'no' tactics

It comes as Parliament erupted on Tuesday over claims and counterclaims of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the Voice, with the government targeting Opposition Leader Peter Dutton while he accused the government of "confected outrage."

Nine newspapers revealed details from an online training session where the national campaigning chief for "no" group Advance, Chris Inglis, instructed "no" volunteers to play on voters' fear and doubt rather than facts, and not to introduce themselves as "no" people.

The "no" case is on the ascendancy. An exclusive survey of more than 8600 people by ACM, the publisher of this newspaper, shows only 34 per cent of voters expressing support for the proposal to alter the Constitution to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, compared to 61 per cent who say they intend to vote "no" at the October 14 referendum.

The results have been welcomed as "looking good, but I don't want to get carried away" by Mr Mundine, who admitted the discussion of the Voice had become a "battleground". He insisted "fear over facts" is not in his playbook, nor is not identifying himself.

"I wouldn't be saying that. In all my things, I've always identified who I am," he told The Canberra Times. "And I've always had people with me and that and we have always identified who we are."

"So I don't know nothing about that with other people saying things like that.

"I'm always honest and upfront and I put my principles out there. Even if it's detrimental to people in my campaign, I always said I am a treaty supporter. Well, I know a lot of "no" campaigners do not support treaty. But that's just Warren Mundine. Warren Mundine is always honest."

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According to Nine newspapers, Mr Inglis explained to volunteers late last month that the "no" camp's job was to make people suspicious of the Voice and its backers. Their job, reportedly, was to raise reports of financial compensation to Indigenous Australians in the wake of a successful Voice referendum.

When reason and emotion collide, emotion always wins. Always wins, the top Advance campaigner reportedly said.

Advance, formerly known as Advance Australia, runs the No campaign Fair Australia and is aligned with CLP senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a former Advance spokesperson.

In Parliament, the government sought to tie the "no" campaign to Mr Dutton and to directly call him out for what the Prime Minister said was putting words in a minister's mouth about the constitutional process that "she did not say".

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus accused the Opposition Leader of being the "leader of a misinformation and disinformation campaign" and "should be ashamed of it."

Mr Albanese said the "no" campaign was using a deliberate strategy of "fear over facts".

"The Advance campaign out there [are] made up of former Liberal Party people and some others from some very strange groups," he told Parliament.

Mr Dutton, to chants of "tell the truth, tell the truth" accused the government benches of "confected outrage" and unbecoming behaviour.

The "yes" campaign group has acknowledged the fight ahead to inform voters.

Yes23 director Dean Parkin has told ACM that his side always knew it was going to be a "contested campaign" and they believe there are a lot of Australians that haven't turned their mind to the Voice yet.

He insists the Voice is a constructive, practical proposition that will save money.

As for the exposed "no" tactics, Mr Parkin said it should not come as a surprise to anybody.

"I think all Australians take a very, very dim view that those tactics are being employed, that those tactics are being employed to confuse and stoke fear among Australians. I think we reject that," he said.

"Certainly from the 'yes' campaign. Our approach has been to train and encourage our volunteers to adopt a very respectful time to take on all views to make sure that we're hearing those different views and providing clear information so that people can make their own minds up."