According to a new poll for the Australia Institue, 84 per cent of Australians support the new laws to ban political ads and candidates from making “inaccurate and misleading” claims.
Australia Institue released a discussion paper on Sunday, proposing outlawing misleading ads following report of widespread misinformation and inaccuracy in the 2019 election campaign.
The paper commented that such truth in advertising laws are currently in place in South Australia where the electoral commission can ask for misleading political ads to be withdrawn and retracted, with financial penalties applying.
It also noted that the media industry is self-regulated by an advertising standards body in new Zealand.
The paper argued industry bodies such as Free TV Australia and the Advertising Standards Burea could regulate truth in advertising,
It said: “Several models for increasing the truthfulness of election campaigns are available to policymakers,” it said.
“They are popular and proven to work in other jurisdictions.”
Results from the survey found 84 per cent of Australians supported a truth in advertising law, while 90 per cent also supported the proposition newspapers, TV networks and social media channels should correct any inaccurate or misleading ads they publish.
There were a number of false or inaccurate political ads published throughout the 2019 election, including that Labor planned to tax non-electric vehicles and an ad that ran on social media claiming Labor planned to introduce a death tax.
