The Albanese government is under renewed pressure over how the Voice to Parliament referendum will be conducted

The government is under renewed pressure to fund both sides of the Voice to Parliament referendum debate, with Liberal Senator Jane Hume and Nationals leader David Littleproud calling on the government to revisit it’s decision.

The Albanese government has decided not to fund both sides of the referendum debate and instead finance a “public education campaign”, in a decision that departs from how referendums have previously been conducted.

The government’s legislation to enable the Voice referendum – set to be debated when parliament resumes – would also suspend legal requirements for Yes and No pamphlets to be created and distributed to all Australian Households.

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Shadow Special Minister for State and Victorian Liberal Senator Jane Hume accused the government of continuing to “duck questions” about the referendum process, saying Australians “deserve to know why these changes to past practice are necessary”.

“Labor has presented legislation that will change the way we conduct referenda in Australia. How we change our Constitution is as important as it gets,” Senator Hume said.

“In an age of misinformation, Labor must explain why they would want to get rid of official information being provided to Australians.

“Labor must explain why it is better not to have an official ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaign, which would make the referendum easier to regulate against illegal donations and foreign interference.

“These aren’t small changes to process – they will set precedence for how we change our national document in the future, including if Australians vote on other questions.”

Nationals Leader David Littleproud called on the government to reconsider its decision so that Australians are “given the tools and the information” to make an informed decision.

“It’s important that the government reconsiders this and the Australian people are given all the information in an equitable way, a transparent way,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia.

“And when a government doesn’t provide that environment and infrastructure, then they have failed.”

The leader of the National Party said funding equity was particularly important given the current media landscape.

“We have a different media landscape than we did the last time we had a referendum, and that’s why it’s important that there is equity,” he said

“We only saw last week where there are organisations that hold immense power in the media, like social media companies. That are prepared to influence the information that’s being dispersed.

Noting that the Nationals had taken a principled position to oppose the Voice, Mr Littleproud said he trusted the Australian people to get the decision right, “even if they don’t agree with me”. However he said that if the prime minister wanted bipartisan support he should make the effort to bring the opposition with him.

“If he wants more voices in the Yes camp then that would be, I would have thought, the smarter way to handle this,” the Nationals leader said.