Why is it legal to tell lies during the Voice referendum campaign?
Retrieved on:
Sunday, July 9, 2023
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A referendum to recognise First Nations Australians in Australia’s Constitution by establishing a Voice to Parliament will be held later this year.
Key Points:
- A referendum to recognise First Nations Australians in Australia’s Constitution by establishing a Voice to Parliament will be held later this year.
- This is focused on disinformation about the referendum process rather than fact-checking claims made about the Voice.
- Several media outlets including RMIT ABC Fact Check, AAP Fact Check and AFP Fact Check are publishing articles fact-checking claims about the Voice.
Telling lies is legal
- It is perfectly legal to spread misinformation and disinformation and tell outright lies about the proposed constitutional amendment, just as it is legal to tell lies during federal election campaigns.
- While Australia has laws banning businesses from engaging in deceptive and misleading advertising about their products and services, there are no equivalent federal laws that apply to politics.
Parliament decided to allow lies during the referendum campaign
- The federal parliament passed up an opportunity to ban misinformation and disinformation during the referendum campaign.
- The committee said “the forthcoming referendum is not the right time to establish a truth-in-political-advertising regime”.
How do truth in political advertising laws operate?
- Those laws work by making it unlawful for political advertisers to make purported statements of fact that are misleading to a material extent.
- Importantly, these laws don’t seek to stop people expressing their opinions, even the most silly and uninformed opinions.
- The law allows the Electoral Commission to request that misleading advertisements be taken down and a retraction issued.
- Read more:
A Voice to Parliament will not give 'special treatment' to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Do these laws actually work?
- The most important goal of truth-in-political-advertising laws is to improve political practice and promote a better political culture.
- Federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters says “lies, misinformation and disinformation are spreading at an exponential rate” and that the South Australian model of truth-in-political-advertising laws is “successful”.