1 week Ago By Matthew Elmas
A Liberal Party federal election campaign advertisement blaming Labor for consistently delivering world-leading inflation rates has been debunked by experts. Login or signup to continue reading Thousands of dollars have been poured into promoting videos that falsely claim inflation under Labor has been consistently higher than any major advanced economy. But economists told AAP FactCheck that inflation has routinely been lower in Australia than in other advanced economies - including G7 countries - since Labor was elected in May 2022.
Australia's cumulative price growth since global inflation picked up during COVID-19 is also around the middle of the pack when compared against other advanced economies globally. The claim appears in YouTube clips targeting voters in marginal seats like McEwen (Labor held) north of Melbourne, Braddon (Liberal held) in northwest Tasmania and the NSW central coast seat of Roberston (Labor held). University of Sydney macroeconomist Stella Huangfu said the claim is wrong.
"While Australia did record the highest inflation among G7 countries at certain points in mid to late 2024, this occurred only occasionally and for a short period," she said. Both major parties have thrown thousands of dollars at online ads in the first fortnight of the campaign, with Labor focusing on claims that the coalition will cut essential services. AAP FactCheck ran the ruler over claims from senior Labor ministers that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had said he will cut Medicare and education funding and found that important context was missing.
While Labor claims that the coalition plans to shrink the size of the public service amounts to a cut to Medicare and education, Mr Dutton has said jobs delivering key services will be retained. He has also said the coalition will stick to the funding allocated for education and health in Labor's recent budget. Election misinformation has also been circulating on social media, including claims that migrants arriving since 2022 are responsible for a 710,000 expansion in the electoral roll.
The claims are false. Migrants who have arrived under the Albanese government can't vote. To apply for citizenship - and therefore the ability to vote - a person must have been in Australia on a valid visa for at least four years.
This means that any migrants in the 710,000 cohort would have arrived in Australia under the previous coalition government or earlier. Official data shows that young Australians signing up to vote have driven the bulk of electoral roll growth. CLAIMS REVISITED AAP FactCheck has been debunking election claims for several weeks.
That hasn't stopped some of the key political players from repeating them. * Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the first leaders' debate to repeat a cherry-picked figure several times that the coalition's nuclear plan will cost $600 billion; experts say the costs are unclear. * Mr Dutton also used the debate to repeat a false claim that Labor's energy plan is "renewables-only".
* Mr Dutton repeated a claim on Thursday that 1.8 million migrants are coming in over five years; experts say that important context has been omitted. * Mr Dutton repeated a false claim on Sunday about the cost of a Toyota RAV4 under Labor's vehicle emissions standards.
* Mr Dutton also repeated a false claim on Sunday that no homes have been built under a Labor government policy. Visit AAP FactCheck's website to read all of these checks in full. Australian Associated Press Daily Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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