|
This article is incomplete and has not been edited recently, and is considered abandoned. It is to be deleted on May 27 (in 1 day), if work on it does not resume. Please edit it so it becomes un-abandoned. If you feel that this article is ready to be reviewed by a peer reviewer, please add {{review}} to it. |
| This article is incomplete and has not been edited recently, and is considered abandoned. It is to be deleted on May 27 (in 1 day), if work on it does not resume. Please edit it so it becomes un-abandoned. If you feel that this article is ready to be reviewed by a peer reviewer, please add {{review}} to it. |
|
This article may not be ready to be published. The following things need to be done:
When these things have been done, and the article is ready to be reviewed and fact-checked, submit it for review?Template:Assistant:Submit/formSubmit for review by changing the |
This article may not be ready to be published. The following things need to be done:
When these things have been done, and the article is ready to be reviewed and fact-checked, submit it for review?Template:Assistant:Submit/formSubmit for review by changing the |
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) declared in a statement Monday that signs erected by lobby group Advance Australia were breached section 329 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the main legislation governing Australia’s elections.
The signs showed David Pocock and Zali Steggall, both party independents contesting the 2022 Australian federal election, wearing clothing with the official logo of the Australian Greens. Pocock is standing as a Senate candidate in the Australian Capital Territory for the eponymous “David Pocock” party but identified by SBS News as an independent, while Steggall is running for re-election as an independent House candidate for Warringah. Neither candidate is endorsed by the Greens.
The AEC considered the signs, which were authorised by Advance Australia, were “likely to mislead or deceive an elector in relation to the casting of a vote”, therefore constituting a breach of section 329. The Commission referenced the Federal Court of Australia’s 2019 precedent set in Garbett v Liu, which deemed “in [section] 329(1) the phrase ‘likely to mislead or deceive an elector’ means a real chance of misleading or deceiving any elector, even one who is unintelligent, or gullible, or naïve”. Advance Australia has since “agreed not to further display the signage without first providing the AEC with 48 hours’ notice.”
In a statement to Wikinews, Advance Australia called the AEC’s decision an “unprecedented backflip”, stating they had paused their advertising campaigns against Pocock and Steggall “while it takes further advice in relation to mounting a legal challenge to the AEC’s backflip over the ads.” Advance referred to a statement from the AEC in April that read “our preliminary view is that the signage in question is suggesting the candidate has a link or similarities with a particular party rather than attempting to confuse people into believing they are actually endorsed by that party,” implying legality.
Executive director of Advance Matthew Sheahan insisted the group had an “unbroken record of playing by the rules” and had “paused the campaign for now”, but “this backflip by the AEC is astonishing, inconsistent and, in our view, plainly wrong.” Sheahan stated “the reality is there is a huge number of apparently independent candidates whose policy positions virtually mirror the Greens. We make no apology for effectively pointing this out to voters.”
Both Pocock and Steggall, however, were pleased by the ruling. In a statement provided to Wikinews Monday, Pocock welcomed the AEC decision, but said he was “disappointed that it has taken more than three weeks for this decision to be reached”; his campaign lodged a complaint with the Commission on April 26. Pocock said the advertisements “falsely depict me as a candidate for the Australian Greens party”, and that he was not and had never been a member of the Greens.
Pocock stated that he had “written to the AEC requesting that Advance Australia be prosecuted for this flagrant breach of Australian electoral law”, and that the advertising “underscores how critical it is that we have federal truth in political advertising laws, backed up by serious penalties”.
Steggall told Wikinews that she “[welcomed] the AEC ruling on Advance Australia’s misleading and illegal advertising – but now it needs to show it has some powers and require Advance Australia [to] publish a retraction via advertising, and a letter to everyone in the electorate that received the misleading Advance Australia flyer.”