The Conversation’s FactCheck team will be in Adelaide for the next two weeks, working with academics to test politicians’ claims against the evidence as South Australians prepare to vote on March 17.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
FactCheck – Analysis and Comment
In Hobart supporting the Tasmanian Greens ahead of the state election, Greens leader Richard Di Natale said ‘in one of our states, women are not getting access to safe terminations’. Is that correct?
How many shark encounters have there been at your local beach? Explore our interactive map to see 20 years of incidents between humans and sharks in coastal waters around Australia.
The Tasmanian Liberal party is promoting gaming industry estimates that ‘around 5,000 jobs’ would be at risk if poker machines were removed from pubs and clubs in Tasmania. Are the estimates correct?
The Australian Banking Association says ‘nearly 80% of bank profits go straight back to shareholders’, the majority of whom are ‘everyday Australians’. Is that right?
On Q&A, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said almost 60% of small business owners in Australia are paid $50,000 or less. Is that right?
In an article published in the lead up to Australia Day, WA Liberal Party policy committee chairman Sherry Sufi said “native title can only exist if Australia was settled, not invaded”. Is that right?
The organisation Sense about Science advocates for openness and honesty about research, and ensures the public interest in sound science and evidence is recognised in public debates and policymaking.
Australian leaders make claims, we ask the experts to test them. Can you tell fact from fiction? What’s spot-on and what’s spin?
To all the Q&A viewers and Conversation readers who requested or shared a FactCheck Q&A in 2017: thank you. Here are a selection of your requests, and the responses from our expert FactCheck authors.
Tim Nicholls said the introduction of a youth curfew in the WA suburb of Northbridge ‘saw a dramatic drop in crime and a reduction in the anti-social behaviour of young people’. Is that right?
One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson said the Safe Schools program contained ‘highly explicit material’ that is being ‘directed at young children’. We asked the experts to look at the facts.
Queensland Labor claimed it has ‘created 122,500 jobs – more than four times the number of jobs created under the Newman-Nicholls government’. Is that right? We asked the experts.
One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson said ‘up to 21 fathers’ are taking their lives in Australia every week. Is that accurate?
Did the government-funded gun buybacks introduced after the Port Arthur massacre have “no effect” in reducing gun deaths in Australia, as an audience member claimed on Q&A? Let’s look at the evidence.
‘Vote No’ campaign material distributed by the Australian Conservatives claims that if same-sex marriage is legalised, the Safe Schools program will be ‘mandatory in schools’. We looked at the facts.
Discussing his opposition to same-sex marriage, Liberal MP Kevin Andrews said children who are brought up with a mother and father are ‘better off than those who are not’. Let’s look at the research.
On Q&A, an audience member said renewable energy is ‘now cheaper than coal’. Senator Matt Canavan disagreed, saying renewables are not ‘at the moment, cheaper than coal’. Let’s look at the numbers.
Do Muslim couples in Australia have ‘on average 4.5 children’ while other couples have ‘1.5 children’? Could Australia have a ‘Muslim majority’ in ‘a couple’ of generations? Let’s check the evidence.
Christian Porter said Australia’s welfare system ‘was costing over 100% of all income tax raised’ under Labor after the GFC, and that it’s ‘around 80%’ under the Coalition. Is that true?
Politicians in Europe, the US and the UK have blamed steel industry woes on artificially cheap imports.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter told Q&A that ‘rates of drug use amongst unemployed are 2.5 times higher than amongst employed people’. Is that correct?
Cape York Partnership founder Noel Pearson told Q&A that Indigenous Australians were ‘the most incarcerated people on the planet Earth’. Is that right?
In a recorded phone call to voters, Labor leader Bill Shorten said that “cuts to penalty rates will rip off 700,000 workers”. Is that true?
The figures don’t really add up.