There’s Literally Nothing Stopping Politicians From Lying To You In Election Ads

We’ve passed the halfway point of the 2019 Federal Election, which makes it a good time for a friendly reminder: it’s totally legal for politicians to lie in their election ads.

That’s worth keeping in mind, given that we’re already knee deep in election ads that are at best misleading, and at worst flat-out lies. See for example this billboard paid for by the Coalition, which depicts Bill Shorten holding up a “Stop Adani” banner (the photo is conveniently cropped, disguising the fact that Shorten was actually trying to pull the banner out of the hands of a protester who crashed one of his events).

Alternatively, see these Facebook ads, also paid for by the Liberals, which falsely claim that Labor wants to start taxing utes (conveniently, these were targeted to Facebook users interested in utes). Or hell, see Clive Palmer’s annoying text messages promising all kinds of expensive dramatic policies he’s unlikely to be able to deliver. The Guardian has also started collecting some of the worst lies from the campaign so far, which you can see here.

All of these ads are currently totally legal, even when they clearly contain lies. This is a problem that ends up cropping up every election, but it’s particularly concerning as targeted Facebook advertising spreads, making it harder to track down and fact-check all the nonsense going around. Here’s what the actual rules are surrounding truth (and lies) in election advertising in Australia.

Wait, What Are The Actual Rules Here?

So here’s the deal: there are currently no laws requiring politicians to tell the truth in political advertising.

Over time, there have been lots of discussions about why this is and whether it should be changed, but at the moment it basically boils down to the fact that checking every single claim included in political ads is hard to do. It’s all very well to create a law requiring parties to tell the truth in advertising, but it’s another thing entirely to actually track down lies, prove that they’re lies, and make sure whoever’s regulating things isn’t accused of bias towards one party.

That means that right now, while commercial businesses are required to ensure that their advertising is honest and unlikely to mislead audiences, political parties are not. Normally, if you have concerns about the honesty of an ad, there are agencies you can complain to who’ll take a look. In the case of political ads, those agencies just recommend that you contact the political party behind the ad, or your local MP.

fact check pic.twitter.com/Ba44exWYE2

— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) April 24, 2019

There are, of course, still a few rules governing political ads. All political ads must include one of those “authorised by” lines letting people know who’s behind it, and election ads are not allowed to mislead people about how to vote (as in, they can’t mislead you into filling the ballot paper out wrong so that your vote won’t be counted). If you defame someone in a political ad, they’re still allowed to sue you for defamation.

Still, though, truth is kind of a big deal. Let this be a reminder to take billboards, Facebook ads and flyers with a grain of salt, and do your research before you cast your vote.