Indigenous voice to parliament referendum civics campaign to go live from Thursday

A $1 million education campaign telling Australians about the referendum will be rolled out from Thursday, with animated videos featuring native animals answering key questions raised by voters in focus groups to be rolled out fortnightly.

Native animals will inform Australians about the Yes vote for the voice.

Cartoon emu and kangaroo characters will be used to educate Australians on the implications of a referendum on a voice to parliament as part of a $1m video campaign.

The animated videos will be rolled out fortnightly from Thursday and tell Australians what a referendum is and how it could change the Constitution, focusing on key questions raised by voters in focus groups.

Constitution Education Fund Australia chief executive Kerry Jones said the politically neutral campaign was critical to “dispel fear” around the referendum.

“People tell me there used to be good civics education programs in the 1940s, but we haven’t been able to cut through since I’ve been in the job since 2000,” she said.

“Accurate, factual information is what we believe Australians are crying out for and we’re going to provide it.”

The education campaign comes as the Yes and No camps consider the materials to be included in their respective arguments for the official Indigenous voice referendum pamphlet, which will be distributed across millions of homes ahead of the question being put to Australians later this year.

Ms Jones, who headed up the No campaign at the 1999 referendum under the Howard government, said she was confident the civics program would give Australians the confidence to cast their vote at the ballot boxes within six months.

The civics campaign – which will not address the Yes and No cases for the voice – will comprise four modules about referendums, the Constitution, voting and Australian democracy.

An animated kangaroo and emu will take viewers through key information, before they are quizzed on the material and eventually “badged” as an informed voter.

“We will be asking Australians to join a fantastical constitutional treasure hunt with our iconic characters … the kangaroo and the emu that are escaping out of the Australian coat of arms off the top on Parliament House for the first time after decades of holding that heavy shield up,” Ms Jones said.

“They’ll be running around Australia with burning questions everybody‘s asking about different processes.”

Ms Jones said the fund had found many Australians were not even clear on what a referendum was, given it had been decades since one was held.