How hate speech during the Voice campaign can harm personal wellbeing, as well as democracy

• Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia will vote in the Voice referendum on October 14.
• Read more:
  How we can avoid political misinformation in the lead-up to the Voice referendum

Misinformation has multiplied

• The surfacing of Donald Trump-style conspiracies has severed the link between political claims and established standards of truth.
• We’ve heard claims such as the Voice would somehow lead to reparations for Aboriginal people or a new “Black State”.
• It has also been argued Australia Day will be abolished and the courts would be overwhelmed with claims from the Voice.

Hate speech can cause physical and psychological harm

• Hate speech causes harm at a social level, as it can worsen and even promote intolerance, divisiveness and hostility towards its targets.
• It hinders public discussion by using polarising and exaggerated claims, disrupting any chance of civil discussion.
• At the individual level, evidence shows hate speech can also cause physical and psychological injury, including increased risk of stress-related illnesses.
• Hate speech can cause fear and anxiety, leading to social exclusion and isolation.

But it’s not too late to change course

• And exaggerated claims calculated only to provoke discord should be named as such by existing fact-checking processes.
• The authors of this article have developed a compendium of key resources that avoid ideological distortions and political grandstanding.
• It is available free of charge to all Australians to help them make up their minds about how to vote.