Parties compete for search results
Labor is begging for funds from its supporters so that it can beat the Liberals to the top of Google search results, where it claims the Coalition is running misleading advertisements attacking its policies.
A fundraising email sent at the weekend by Labor’s national assistant secretary Jen Light highlights how critical search advertising will be in the last week of the campaign as disengaged Australians tune in and ask the internet for help on how they should vote ahead of Saturday’s poll.
Australian law does not require federal political ads to be true, forcing parties to fight what they see as false claims publicly or for social media giants to adjudicate according to their policies that typically forbid things such as misinformation and hate speech.
But in narrow circumstances the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) can intervene when people are being misled about casting a vote.
On Monday, Conservative lobby group Advance Australia agreed to pause an ad campaign that depicted independent candidates David Pocock and Zali Steggall revealing Greens imagery after the commission threatened legal action for allegedly misleading or deceiving voters.
The commission had previously said the ads were acceptable but changed its mind, noting in a statement they were displayed very close to pre-poll centres.
Labor’s campaign headquarters did not respond to a request for comment about Light’s email, which did not identify the ads the party considers misleading.
‘‘I don’t want to repeatwhat these ads are saying because, frankly, they’re not worth your time – but you should know they’re pretty deceptive,’’ Light wrote in the email, which requests a range of donation values up to $64.
‘‘Some of the worst ones are even trying to impersonate the ALP on Google ad search results to try and directly mislead voters about policy.’’
Light’s email said the party would use donations to send targeted ads to ‘‘persuadable voters in marginal seats’’.
A Google spokesman said the ad referred to in Light’s email ‘‘had been reviewed and appropriate action taken’’ but would not specify which ad it was or if it breached any policies, citing privacy policies.
A government spokesman said it had not run any misleading ads, adding there was a disclaimer at the bottom of its search ads, which are logged in Google’s transparency library, to make clear its source.
‘‘It is disappointing that Labor continues to deceive voters and those whom it seeks to raise funds from,’’ he said, pointing to other Labor ads where remarks from Prime Minister Scott Morrison are taken out of context and ‘‘nonexistent’’ cuts to Medicare are claimed.
Both major parties are investing heavily in Google search ads, with Google Trends data showing spiking interest in terms like ‘‘Labor policies’’ as the election enters its final days.
Public administration professor Ariadne Vromen, from the AustralianNational University, said the email was a textbook example of microdonation fundraising, where political parties tap into current events to solicit small amounts frommany benefactors.
Vromen said where once political groups asked for these donations with largely optimistic messages, increasingly they were saying ‘‘give usmore money so we can fight the other side, because they represent this danger to
Australian politics and society’’.
Independent ACT Senate candidate David Pocock said Advance Australia should be prosecuted for its ads, which he said had misled and confused some Canberrans into incorrectly believing he had been a Greens member.
‘‘It says a lot about my opponents that they are relying on false and misleading advertising to try and scare people instead of presenting their own ideas for the future of our great city,’’ Pocock said in a statement.
Advance’s executive director Matthew Sheahan said the AEC had backflipped and made the wrong decision, which Advance would take legal advice on. Advancemade ‘‘no apology’’ for pointing out the similarity of policy positions between some independent candidates and the Greens, he said.
The AEC has also threatened legal action against the Back Beetaloo campaign if it doesn’t remove political video advertisements or update them with an authorisation.
The group, which is pushing gas mining in the Northern Territory and was exposed last year as a fake grassroots campaign set up by a former Liberal staffer in Sydney, has paid to promote pro-Coalition and anti-Greens content mainly tomen over age 45 in Queensland. It did not respond to a request for comment. – Nine