Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of lies, disinformation and vicious bullshit. It’s election season in Australia.
In suburbs and towns across the nation, alongside burgeoning numbers of election billboards featuring candidates with unnaturally sparkly teeth, is an underbelly of dirty tricks that the public rarely gets to see. It’s usually the upstarts who get the most egregious treatment, impertinent as they are in upending the major-party-dominated old boys’ club.
Zoe Daniel became one of the most high-profile paradigm smashers when she audaciously wrested the blue-ribbon seat of Goldstein from the Liberals on a platform of climate action, transparent economic management, integrity, equality and respect. But women who won’t be quiet tend to trigger an incandescent rage in entitled old white blokes who are used to having power and taxpayer dollars handed to them deferentially on a silver plate.
Here we go again
Fast-forward to 2025. Enter the fossil-fuel lobbyists and the dark arts of disinformation. Suddenly attack dog billboards peddling falsehoods pop up around Daniel’s Melbourne electorate accompanied by images of her laughing beside the words “Raising taxes”. (Daniel, in fact, wants multinationals to pay their share. The Australia Institute reports that over the past four years the big gas companies made $149 billion selling Australian gas they got for free, with a grand total of zero royalties collected.)
Now enter the Liberals who distribute a flyer to the electorate falsely claiming Daniel “votes with the Greens” (of 40 Greens’ motions, she voted in favour 22 times and against 18). They also condemn her for failing to support the Liberals’ notorious “carpark rorts” scheme which they described as “infrastructure” but which the auditor-general described as “shameless pork-barrelling”.
Bullies and threats
Next come the bullies and standover merchants. Small-business owners who proudly display her advertising in their windows reveal to her that they have been threatened with boycott and financial ruin.
“We’re seeing billboards that are full of lies. We’re seeing pamphlets that are full of lies. We’re seeing intimidation tactics. We’re seeing some pretty awful behaviour. And we’re also seeing push-polling where the questions go to falsehoods or misleading information, planting the seed with voters that I might be planning to do something that I’m not.”
Incredibly, little can be done to counter the brazenly false claims that swirl around candidates who dare to take on the political oligarchy. There are no federal laws preventing lies in political advertising in Australia, prompting Daniel to repeatedly call out this toxic system of bullshitting your way into office.
And generally speaking, it is the creeping organism of the far right fraudsters that are most emboldened by the elevation of a compulsive Republican liar to the office of president of the US.
“We don’t have truth in political advertising laws in this country and god knows we need it … even as someone who had been around politics as a journalist for some time I was quite shocked at how nasty it was,” Daniel said.
Floodgates opened
Last but not least there’s the “flood the zone with shit” strategy made famous by controversial Trump ally Steve Bannon, recently released from prison. This requires the airing of mega-lies dropped repeatedly and often which trigger “outside and outsized” media and social media uptake. The aim is not to persuade voters but to disorient them.
In Australia the disinformation hacks use their contacts at compliant news outlets to publish patently false stories attacking and belittling opponents. The Murdoch press in Australia is known for repeatedly running fact-free propaganda for the Liberal National Party, climate deniers, welfare bashers and Trump sycophants while poisoning informed public debate and democratic systems worldwide. It is the far right that have most ferociously attached themselves to the Bannon strategy and who roll it out to kill off challengers.
“The media aren’t onto this,” Daniel said. “People tend to plant something in the media and what comes out is ‘this person said this and this person denied it’. Really the starting point for bullshit should be [to call it out as] bullshit”.
More bricks in the wall
Then the politicians lock it in by constructing legislative brick walls. Just to ensure independents can never be the emerging force they are quickly becoming, Labor and the Coalition have colluded to bang up new obstacles. If the independents manage to navigate the dirty tricks being rolled out in future elections they will encounter a newly rigged system of electoral donations “reform” which the Albanese government claims will “take the big money” out of politics.
What it will also do is nobble the independents. Single candidates will be barred from spending more than $800,000 on their campaigns but a party can spend up to $90 million nationally. The independents aren’t a party. Millions in extra funding will flow to the major players. As Labor’s Special Minister of State Don Farrell reportedly retorted when he heard that Climate 200 convenor Simon Holmes à Court was complaining the changes would entrench the two-party system and lock out challengers: “That’s the fucking point.”
Responding to the rushed passage of the bill, rammed through on the second last day of Parliament without going to an inquiry, Daniel said she felt ill:
“I just felt sick. One of the main reasons I got into politics was that trust in leadership is so broken [and] legislating self-protection against the will of the people is absolutely disgraceful.”
Building a better BS machine
Holmes à Court said the clunky disinformation machine from last election had morphed into a beast which was more sophisticated and chilling. At least four shadowy entities were linked to the Liberal Party, pumping out falsehoods while telling supporters they are operating in the interests of the nation.
“Last election we experienced the direct line between the Liberal Party dirt unit and News Corp, which seemed to do little more than raise the profile of the independents. This election the Liberal Party’s associated groups — Advance, Better Australia and Australians for Prosperity — are working overtime to harness the classic Steve Bannon tactic that brought Trump to power.’”
Be wary: it’s a post-truth world
Any random fantasy can be repurposed into policy and any falsehood can undermine challengers. LNP leader Peter Dutton wants to axe 36,000 public servants but won’t say which departments will get it in the neck. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claims he’s building Australia into a renewables powerhouse while simultaneously green-lighting dirty coal and gas projects.
Labor may be revolted by the LNP but will happily work with a little bit of vomit in its throat to stack the system against the threat posed by the rising popularity of teal independent MPs who see their job as working full-time — not occasionally — in the public interest. Andrew Coyne writes in the paywalled Toronto’s Globe and Mail of the coarsening of politics in a Trumpian world and highlights “the debasement of morals and norms by politicians who have discovered there is no political price to be paid for it.”
In Australia, the independents are the price. This election, once again, they challenge the business-as-usual political ecosystem. And the polls tell the cosy cabal of politicians and corporate influencers that the independents are kryptonite.
Has anyone else noticed that nobody, frankly not even here, ever has the audacity (or honesty) to mention The Greens, who have achieved far more than the independents have been able to and are subjected to the most apoplectic wrath of the Mullahs of Murdochristan and the liars of AD Vance?
Maybe everybody needs to stop chickening out and start to tell the WHOLE story?
I think the improved showing by the Greens in WA on WE show that people are listening, especially among the young. As the bolted on tories and labour fossils die out Greens and independents will rise. Two party politics has shafted this country
I think you are right – I certainly hope so!
Hello Felix
I am certainly supportive of your sentiment about the Greens, but I also am very happy with the work of the Community Independent members. They operate on different levels in the separate Houses of Parliament and therefore can be our savour working in tandem. I do now have a quality independent in my house of reps electorate and will as always vote 1 Green in the senate.
Hi Rob – I also think the community independents are worthwhile but worry that they seem to be a bit of a current fad and people may be expecting too much from them.
Here in Canberra, I reluctantly accept that the Greens might not have been able to win the second Senate seat, despite closing the gap over the years, and have no doubt that David Pocock is an excellent Senator. However, at the local government level, I’m not so sure. The Greens lost two seats to independents, resulting in the loss, inter alia, of a very good environment Minister. While Thomas Emerson who won that spot is a neighbour and seems to be well-meaning, I’m not really clear what he actually stands for and will do.
And the net result has been that Labor has refused to sign a decent agreement with the Greens this time, and are already showing some signs of backsliding. Pretty much all of the outstanding environmental achievements in the ACT, just for example, were the result of effective Greens pressure, made possible by the fact that Labor couldn’t really govern without Greens backing.
Finally, I think/fear it is a brutal reality of our kinds of parliamentary representative democracy that a parliament comprised of only, or mainly, independents would either be unable to form a workable government in practice or would just end up with the formation of unofficial “parties” that voters didn’t necessarily expect or want.
So I think parties are inevitable and necessary, though SOME independents add value to a parliament.
Agree! Greens “not mentioned” & this absence pervades conversations in all kinds of situations
MSMABC are all captured by these billionaire types and their interests, how to traverse this landscape is very troubling indeed, sorry have no answers except old fashioned human being to human being contact and dialogue… very hard work and beyond me as enthusiasm is required
People used to call Greens a fad, and before that they called the Democrats a fad. The facts are the current crop of independents started with Cathy McGowan who won her first election in Indi in 2013. 12 years does not a fad make . It was also the independents whose work secured the release of the children in Naru
This article needs to be aired again and again
Will be sending it on
Thank you for publishing this. It is chilling but deserves wide publication and attention.
That is a very spine-chilling time for voters. It’s also incredibly disappointing to see both Labor and LNP parties collaborate to deliberately block progress from elected MPs and prevent new “blood” coming through. We’re still bogged down three quarters of a century later by the old white bloke mentality, where male workers – and especially women – “knew their place”. A pox on both the Coalition and Labor for this.
The Coalition have just one policy and a strategy. ‘Go nuclear’ is the policy and with their four major cohorts throw out as much bullshit as possible throughout the campaign to attempt to overwhelm the electorate. What’s new?
The Coalition are no more than a bunch of lying, deliberately misinforming banshees! They don’t have to argue for or against anything. No accountability!
It is time we publicly announced that the Peter Dutton’s/the LNP’s campaign slogan “back on track” actually means “on track backwards”!
Dutton and the LNP are so 1950’s!
• He supports coal
• He supports nuclear
• He opposes recognition of Indigenous Australians
• He is anti-immigration
• He appeals to racists (black youth in Melbourne causing crime?)
• He claims support for many policies which he then votes against when they get to parliament
• He is a blind supporter of the Israel genocide in Gaza and the West Bank (doesn’t understand the long and complicated history)
• He has very few women candidates
• He avoids announcing policy initiatives
• He has simplistic arguments and explanations based on his old police background – everything is in black and white (goodies and baddies) – no gradations in between
• He makes mountains out of mole hills as his modus operandi for attacking the Greens, the Teals and Labor (e.g. when did Albanese hear about the caravan with explosives!!)
• He makes things up
What else can we say other than:
Peter Dutton – “on track backwards”
Well said, Peter.
And he’s a mate of Gina Reinhardt, who is a mate of tRump! Enough said!
I believe that it would be to the advantage of the Independents seeking election to combine into an Independents’ party. THey could call themselves the Community Independents. This way they can continue to be independent but have the advantage of obtaining higher funds through claiming to be a party. One of the core rules of such a party could be that all members are encouraged to vote as they see fit, rather than being tied to a party line.
I live in a blue ribbon Liberal seat with the clean and shiny and vaguely unrelatable Aaron Violi as encumbent.
The number of V8s and tradie trucks out here, plus the landed gentry, combined with a less than impressive Labor candidate in the past, have made it a Right stronghold.
The last election saw a 3% swing to Labor.
Now there is a new candidate. Naomi Oakley. And I am keen to learn more, and get behind her if it seems a good use of my energy.
I doubt that the Teal candidate would have a chance out here, but preferences do influence.
Now there is more time before the election, I’m thinking I will get active. The possibility of Labor cutting through here there, however slight, however there is enough climate concern for swinging voters to choose sensibly.
So, for the first time in my life – that’s 5 decades of voting age – I will be finger painting in a political party/cause – outside of student politics at uni that is.
Luckily I quite like red.
Climate is the only issue an election right now should be fought on – yes, housing, access to decent medical care for the whole person, violence against women and girls, public education being properly funded, the Ulurur statement, all the big things still matter.
But climate – we’ve one home. If we were renters we’d have been evicted by now and be living in a tent on mars.
So I will be pressing Ms Oakley for her party position on new non-renewables and taxing and all the things that matter.
But, in the end, we absolutely do not need Liberals running the ship again. A woken up ALP would be handy. Especially one that has to appease Teals and Greens.
Our kids – our future – need us to clean up the family home.
Dare I say that your fine and honourable ideals are no longer matched by those in red shirts. I can’t help but feel that whilst you hold true to those things that are for the greater good the political beasts have moved either blithely or deliberately rightward.
Good luck to all the Teals and climate protecting candidates. As Trump races to worsen the situation, Dutton goes nuclear and Albanese ends his first (only?) term having forsaken his environmental promises and betrayed the people who voted for him on the basis of them, the future of our country and world looks bleaker and bleaker. Nevertheless, as a resident of north Queensland, the thought of a ‘community candidate’ does not automatically fill me with anything other than apprehension. ‘Community’ can be as rightward leaning as Hansen, Palmer or Katter, all of which were/are based in the ‘Sunshine State’. Sure, nothing ventured, nothing gained – but whether or not we have the time to change things before the world falls over, is unclear.
I’ve mostly been a swing voter, but this time around it will definitely be independent who gets my vote.
LNP are rubbish and Labor not far behind.
The stand-over tactics in Goldstein are like the mafia. Zoe Daniel is doing an excellent job, no doubt at great personal cost. Her speech at the National Press club must have irked the major parties.
Speaking of major parties, the Liberals wouldn’t be anywhere without the National Party who probably hold more seats in the Coalition Opposition.
A tough battle ahead but lets not forget that the younger gererations will be a large voting bloc this election.
The more independents in the Lower House the better. Community campaigns have been working tirelessly for years to weaken this nexus between the “major” but not listening to us, parties.
Completely agree Felix – it’s as if 30 years of Greens challenging the status quo and growing as a party and a movement didn’t happen! What’s shocking here in WA is how some Independent take Greens positions, then reduce them to motherhood statements without a hint of shame or even a nod to the Greens, and no indication about how they will implement them.
People are falling for the Independents line that they will represent ‘the community’. But who is their community? In the western suburbs of Perth it’s Liberals in teal t-shirts who fear their old party is going too far right. In the progressive seat of Fremantle, it’s Greens-leaning voters seduced by the publicity the Teals get from articles like this!
The Teals seem to me what the Liberals should be – centrist, socially and environmentally aware and above all ETHICAL. The Libs in their last term were blatantly pork barrelling. Albanese at least has been a bit more honest, but has been a disappointment with policy – timid and still beholden to the Fossil Fuel lobby. The major party stitchup of donations law and lack of action on anything remotely substantial means the only good outcome is a hung parliament with socially conscious candidates in the balance of power. Yes why dont we ever hear about the Greens from the media? They have achieved more than Albanese in this parliament and will hold the balance of power in WA in the Upper House – yet nothing!
This election is a critical time to replace as many Labor and LNP MPs with Independents and Greens. The last half decent government we had was the minority Gillard govt and they were only good because they had to negotiate on so many bits of legislation. Bring on another minority govt with enough independent clout to improve the electoral funding laws, to finally bring on bans to gambling advertising, to create a more balanced playing field and to finally push through truth in political advertising
To allow lies during Australian election campaigns is purely immoral, it is an unsult to us all, it is unchristian, unbelievale and against every religion.
Lies ought to be a warning to the people that those who lie during campaigns, will most likely lie all the time.
We are insane to accept such low tactics.
Do not vote for liars.
Simple.
Nicole, the independents need to get onto local radio where there’s a big audience of voters. Call out the campaign of disinformation. Don’t worry too much though because I reckon the public are pretty astute. They dumped Tim Wilson for a reason and I can’t see him getting back. I remember Jeff Kennett on Jon Faine’s program. He displayed such arrogance that I think it had lots to do with him losing the election. Zoe needs to call up each program on commercial radio and ABC and speak out.
great article. and thanks Felix and others who’ve mentioned the Greens. and yes, Greens in WA have proved that there is a force to be reckoned with, to be included in the discussions about upcoming elections. We have four in the Upper House, with probable balance of power, so can really make a difference.
As one commentator said, last halfway decent Federal govt. was the Gillard one where they had to negotiate with the Greens.
I certainly hope that enough Teals, independents and Greens can form a strong group (who won’t always a agree with each other!) to hold government to account. they have capacity for injecting some sanity into federal politics.
In the face of rampant disinformation and dirty tactics this election season, supporting independents is more crucial than ever! They offer a fresh approach grounded in community values and genuine representation. By choosing independent candidates, we are rejecting lies and standing up for integrity, transparency, and real change. It’s time to empower those who prioritize the needs of the people over party politics. Let’s champion the voices that act in our best interests and pave the way for a brighter, more truthful future! #VoteIndependent #TruthInPolitics #CommunityFirst
I agree whole heartedly! We need as many independents and Greens as possible as in our parliament. It is too easy for a two party government system to get away with dodgy legislation.
The gutlessness, or pure malice towards the Greens and Independents by the Duopoly of broken promises, should be enough to have every thinking voter heading for anyone but albutton as long as their views echo those espoused by us thinking folk, you know dump USUKA, do more for the environment, do more for housing, make the miners pay some taxes, stop subsidising fossil fuel producers or explorers,— we know what we want and who can give it to us and, sadly it’s no longer Labor and definitely not the LNP so make sure to vote independent when the time comes. Let the majors know we expect them to do what they promise and if they don’t there are consequrnces
Australians have been poorly served by the Two Party system. It was devised by, and it is maintained by the rich and powerful to maintain their rule. A ‘pretend democracy’ to protect the guilty. A vote for the duopoly and we get the establishment. And remember, it’s the Western establishment. The corporations and financial institutions getting fatter by mass-murdering Palestinians. The ALP/LNP duopoly feels no shame in sucking up to the Yanks.
“We can’t all live in a Yankee submarine.”
There is only one thing that matters in any election now – the environment !
There is only one party that preferences the environment – The Greens !!
Once you start thinking, you can’t vote any other way ……
Proportional Representation in the Lower House would ensure that there is always a “minority” government. The Greens and Teals would then be regarded as models of our needed MPs. Parliament would become civilised as the two old Parties become incapacitated to continue their adversarial winner-take-all circus.
The ills of our two-party-preferred duopoly would vanish overnight.
Hopefully, the Teals and Greens would insist on Proportional Represented as the first piece of legislation as a condition for supporting a minority government, red or blue.
That would change our political culture forever.
Agreed
The duopoly of Labor and Coal-ition constantly demonstrate why their share of the vote continues to slide. They pretend to be opposed while actually being two faces of the same monster. In Fremantle, Labor fearing they’re on the cusp of being knocked out, did a preference deal with the Liberals. And we’re to believe they oppose each other? Had it not been for this preference deal, we’d possibly have had a result already in Fremantle with Community Independent, Kate Hulett, knocking out the sitting Labor MP Simone McGurk. And, by the way, there’s no such thing as ‘teals’. That’s a Murdoch slander, quickly taken up by the press widely. Community Independents are bringing back real, grassroots democracy and accountability in a broken political system. Of course the Greens remain an important force to recognise, and boost. There’s much agreement and overlap between the Greens and Community Independents. However, Community Independents can gain votes from sources which the Greens have not been able to and may never be able to, for whatever reason.
A friend once pointed out that the best way to get people to do the right thing is to make it the easiest thing to do. If we collectively refuse to vote for liars and bullsh#t artists then they will either fade into obscurity or start doing the right thing by the electorate. I know it sounds hopelessly optimistic but…
I’m writing this at 12.19am Queensland time on Tuesday 11th March 2025. Let’s see what timestamp is put on it.
Whoops, my mistake, I had a large surgery yesterday and seem to have lost a day
yeah. good luck with that
I’d like Don Farrell (SA Labor Right Faction dinosaur) to explain how his legislation is preventing the likes of QLD Millionaire Clive Palmer from manipulating electoral results. I understood that was the motivation for the caps on spending. But Palmer just invents new Parties so he circumvents the legislation. The same issues arise with Warren Mundine & his consultant mates Whitestone backing Advance Party.
How does this legislation stop millionaires buying seats Don Farrell???
Disingenuous move that will damage the ALP further.
NEVER VOTE THE MAJORS, THEY GOT US WHERE WE ARE!
And now for your entertainment, Clive Palmer and the Trumpet of Parrots.
The problem with journalists ‘calling out bullshit’ is that it reinforces the elist/common people divide: the idea that the people are too stupid or gullible to detect bullshit themselves and need to told what is true by more enlightened people.
That annoys a lot of people, something the enlightened elite seem reluctant to acknowledge.
No one likes to be told what to think or what to believe.
I have been a staunch supporter of the Greens for many years. However their early stance against The Voice referendum did, in my opinion, so much damage to the outcome. I wish they would be more supportive of legislation that makes things slightly better, rather than voting against with the Coalition because it does not go far enough. I feel that is supporting the “going backwards”movement