The vast majority of Australians (84 percent) support new laws to ban political parties and candidates from making “inaccurate and misleading” claims, according to a new poll for the Australia Institute.
Yesterday, the progressive think tank released a discussion paper canvassing options for truth in political advertising laws, following reports of widespread misinformation in the this year’s election campaign and calls from Australian lawmakers, including independent Zali Steggall and Liberal Jason Falinski, for new minimum standards.
The paper said that truth in advertising laws operate in South Australia, where the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) can request that material be withdrawn and retracted and financial penalties apply, and New Zealand, where the media industry is self-regulated by an advertising standards body.
Industry bodies including Free TV Australia and Ad Standards could regulate truth in advertising, preventing the AEC from being drawn into the contentious political process of adjudication, the paper said.
“Several models for increasing the truthfulness of election campaigns are available to policymakers,” it said. “They are popular and proven to work in other jurisdictions.”
The paper includes results from a Dynata survey of 1,464 people conducted in the last week of July, with a margin of error of 3 percent, that found 84 percent of all voters want truth in advertising laws, with support in Labor, the Liberal–National Coalition and the Greens all above 84 percent.
Most respondents supported a range of penalties including fines (62 percent), forcing publications to retract claims (60 percent) and loss of public funding (54 percent).
Criminal charges were supported by 42 percent of respondents.
Respondents were unsure who should be the arbiter of truth, with support split between the judicial system (27 percent), electoral commissions (26 percent) and industry bodies (21 percent), with 15 percent unsure and 7 percent suggesting a new panel of experts.
The survey also found 90 percent support for the proposition that newspapers, TV channels and social media networks should run corrections if they publish inaccurate or misleading ads.
This year’s election saw a range of false claims made in political ads, including that Labor planned to tax non-electric vehicles, and on social media, such as that Labor planned to introduce a death tax.
Two challenges against misleading Chinese-language signs in Kooyong and Chisholm that used AEC colors to urge voters to vote Liberal have been lodged in the court of disputed returns .
On Wednesday, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims told Guardian Australia that Facebook should have removed the bogus death tax claims but chose not to, a move he said was aimed at protecting its bottom line.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese