In a time of slippery weasel words and ‘alternative facts’, we are delighted to see the return of the ABC fact-checking unit in collaboration with RMIT.
Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said he thought that Victorians have never felt more unsafe, and that burglaries, assaults and murders are rising year-on-year. Is he right?
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
Bald-faced lies are fairly rare in Australian politics but, in 2016, weasel-words and cherry-picking were common. Politicians and public figures are experts at disguising opinion and ideology as fact.
After Australia announced a refugee deal with the US, Labor’s Kate Ellis told Q&A that millions of dollars were spent on an earlier deal with Cambodia, yet very few lives were changed. Is that right?
On Q&A, panellists duelled over the numbers of migrants Australia takes a year. Is it 200,000 or 800,000? How many permanent and how many temporary? Let’s check the facts.
Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Mark Butler told Q&A that eating disorders “are the mental illness type which has the highest mortality rate”. We check the research.
Senator Jacqui Lambie told Q&A that a third of Australian age pensioners are living below the poverty line and that it’s estimated to rise to two-thirds within five years. Is that right?
Chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Warren Mundine, told Q&A that $30 billion is spent every year on 500,000 Indigenous people in Australia. Is that right?
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Kon Karapanagiotidis said that what a politician can claim for a one night stay in Canberra is equivalent to an entire week on Newstart. Is that true?
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield told Q&A that the Children’s eSafety Commissioner has investigated 11,000 cases of cyberbullying and can fine social media firms $17,000 a day. Is that true?
Ethicist Peter Singer told Q&A that climate change-related sea level rises are “estimated to cause something like 750 million refugees just moving away from that flooding”. Is that accurate?
After a question from a Muslim audience member, Senator-elect Pauline Hanson said “your Grand Mufti won’t even come out and condemn the terrorist attacks that’s happened overseas”. Is that right?
Was new Senator Derryn Hinch right to say on Q&A that voting is only compulsory in Australia and Belgium, and that 90% of New Zealanders vote even though it’s voluntary?
When Attorney-General George Brandis was asked on Q&A about a parliamentary vote on the decision to go to war, he said that was not part of the Westminster tradition. Is that right?
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that Australia spends more at a Commonwealth level on negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts than it does on child care or higher education. Is he right?