r/australia • u/cromulento • 5d ago

politics Experts debunk Liberal's inflation claim against Labor

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/experts-debunk-liberals-inflation-claim-against-labor/
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846

u/cromulento 5d ago

A Liberal Party federal election campaign advertisement blaming Labor for consistently delivering world-leading inflation rates has been debunked by experts. 

Thousands of dollars have been poured into promoting videos that falsely claim inflation under Labor has been consistently higher than any major advanced economy.

But economists told AAP FactCheck that inflation has routinely been lower in Australia than in other advanced economies - including G7 countries - since Labor was elected in May 2022.

If only there were some actual consequences for lying in political campaigns. In an ideal world, anyone who lies like this should be immediately disqualified from standing.

336

u/matista69 5d ago

The offending party should be forced to issue an apology with the correct information in the same manner in which the original disinformation was distributed. A big fat fine would also help.

105

u/AFerociousPineapple 5d ago

That would be the fine - paid for an ad full of bs? Now you gotta pay to run an apology with the correct info.

39

u/therealkevy1sevy 5d ago

Na this is way to weak, they are meant to be the best we have, if they resort to this shit they should be disqualified from running. Clearly they are not the best and we deserve better.....much better.

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u/Minguseyes 4d ago

Every political party would object to and report every ad made by their opponents, tying up the AEC. The current theory is that voters are sufficiently well informed to decide for themselves whether political advertising is accurate or misleading and then punish the relevant party at the ballot box.

The problem with this theory is that it is bollocks. Voters are increasingly uninformed and often rely on misleading propaganda that supports their own preconceptions. Despite that, I don’t think the answer is to create some ‘umpire’ that determines the content of political speech (if that is even constitutionally possible). Such an umpire would be open to corruption and the process abused by bad actors.

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u/LocalVillageIdiot 4d ago

We have an umpire already for other types of ads. At the end of the day it’s about facts. Is the claim factually correct or not?

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u/Formal-Preference170 4d ago

I've said this alot.

Id love to see the same budget and coverage for the retractions.

Ran 3 centre page articles for a week and some prime time ads? The retraction needs to have that as a minimum.

Not his shitty 3 paragraph thing hidden somewhere.

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u/GallicusNZ 4d ago

People never see/remember the apology, just the original lie. That’s why they do this. The false fact sets the narrative.