Political parties are hoping to capitalise on voters’ appetite for the truth by creating websites that resemble fact-checking resources.
The Liberal Party has established two websites that speak in the parlance of fact-checking to help voters ‘get the facts’ and avoid being ‘misled’ on Labor and independent candidates. The first warns of the perils of the ‘partisan’ and therefore ‘fake’ independent. The website details a laundry list of how candidates have allegedly danced around the truth of their Labor-leaning political allegiance and distorted the facts of funding pools. The second is dedicated to calling out ‘Labor Lies’ through a series of third-party resources where a simple click will ‘reveal the truth’. Both websites come with a Liberal Party disclaimer in small text at the base of the page, which is easy to miss. The unique domain names and lack of political branding can mislead voters into thinking that these are third-party fact-checking resources.
So far Labor doesn’t appear to have set up their own websites, but both parties have engaged a potentially misleading tactic for postal vote registration. Voters are being mailed, emailed, and served up Facebook advertising for postal vote registration that, instead of going direct to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), filters through party-backed websites and lands in party HQ. These websites come with generic domain names and lack the look and feel of Liberal and Labor products. The AEC confirmed that although legal, these websites have the potential to mislead voters.
Meanwhile, One Nation has slipped into fact-checking mode, calling these ‘fake postal vote applications’ from major parties a ‘SCAM’ designed to ‘trick you’. To promote their message, One Nation used official AEC branding, which the AEC confirmed in an email to First Draft it did not approve. However, the AEC said, ‘We do appreciate that the message intending to be sent here by One Nation was for people to apply for a postal vote (if they need one) directly through the AEC instead.’
Going into the May election, voters need to be aware of how political parties and candidates are donning fact-checker uniforms and presenting themselves as the arbiters of truth.
Julia Bergin
First Draft Senior Research Reporter
This was featured in our newsletter of 29 April 2022 - read the full edition here. Or to subscribe, click here.