Should politicians be allowed to tell lies in political ads? - Oct 2023
If you are running a business, you can’t engage in misleading or deceptive conduct. But if you are in politics, there’s nothing to stop you from telling outright lies.
In the lead-up to the referendum, lies were being shamelessly disseminated all over social media. Chinese parents in Melbourne suburbs were told that their kids’ private school fees would go up if there was a Voice, because of Indigenous scholarships. Reparations of 5% of GDP would apparently be automatically payable to Indigenous groups, according to another social media scare campaign.
I’m not saying that this changed the outcome of the referendum – I respect the outcome of a No vote as the will of the Australian people.
But there is no doubt that lessons are being learned from the referendum by all sides about successful campaigning in a social media dominated world.
All over the world, democracies are grappling with declining trust, in the context of polarisation, disengagement, deep fakes and sophisticated social media disinformation campaigns.
An exit poll on referendum day showed that more than eight in 10 Australians agree that truth in political advertising laws should be in place in time for the next federal election campaign (irrespective of whether they voted Yes or No).
Legislating this is not an easy thing to do – freedom of speech is a fundamental part of our liberal democracy and some will shout loudly about it being Orwellian. But if we can find a way to reduce misleading and deceptive conduct by businesses, we should be able to manage it for politicians.
Any truth in political advertising framework would need to be conservative – only applying to clearly disprovable statements in paid advertising. But it’s not impossible. And the alternative - not addressing it - is worse.
As one US Senator said: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
The Government is currently considering its response to a committee report on the 2022 Federal Election, which recommends the introduction of measures to govern truth in political advertising.
In my Restoring Trust Bill, I have supported Zali Steggall MP’s proposed model, which is based on the South Australian model that has successfully been in place for 20 years.
The focus is now on the Government - If we don’t take this opportunity to protect voters from deliberate lies from politicians, we will have to suffer the consequences to our democracy for years to come.
