'Absolute rot': Five fact-checked claims you should know before voting
The
Australian federal election
is on today, and hundreds of candidates have spent the past few weeks suggesting why they should be part of the new parliament.
While many of the claims made by politicians and their supporters stack up, that's not the case for all of the information shared in the lead-up to the election.
Here are five claims made about the election that aren't quite correct.
No, voting isn't an act of fraud
A Facebook post suggests there are no lawful candidates and that it's a crime to vote.
This stems from the erroneous claim that there has been no valid head of state in Australia since 1973 due to the Royal Style and Titles Act from that year.
AAP FactCheck says it's a debunked
sovereign citizen
myth, and the Act sets out the formal title for the Queen but has no effect on any other laws.
Peter Dutton won't cut $350b from the health budget
An advert authorised by Labor appears to suggest Labor will cut $350 billion from Victorian hospitals.
Labor has told AAP FactCheck the ads did not specifically say the cuts would come from health spending.
Dutton has said he would reduce "wasteful spending", but has
ruled out reductions to frontline services
.
The
Coalition costings
have revealed savings including from ditching Labor's student debt plan, axing its housing fund, and reducing foreign aid.
READ MORE
The cuts that could leave some Australians worse off after election day
Labor's approach to migration did not cause the housing crisis
Dutton has claimed that higher migration under Labor has "really created a housing crisis".
Experts have said the
shortfall in housing
pre-dates Labor's term in office.
Michael Fotheringham, managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, told AAP FactCheck the idea that the crisis was created under
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's
government is "absolute rot", adding: "This is a crisis that's been 40 years in the making."
READ MORE
The housing affordability stumbling block being ignored by both major parties
Bulk-billing claims don't include context
The Coalition claims bulk-billing rates for GPs have fallen since Labor won power in 2022.
While this is true, experts say this is due to a complex mix of factors. They say elevated inflation rates (which started rising before Labor took office) and the failure of indexation of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items to keep up with inflation have made the costs of running a GP clinic higher, and less attractive for doctors to bulk bill.
Bulk-billing rates also rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic because vaccine and telehealth appointments were funded as part of the government response.
Meanwhile, Albanese's claim that bulk-billing rates were in "free-fall" when Labor came into office has been found to be misleading because, while rates were going down, they fell more rapidly after Labor took government.
Albanese isn't 'proud' of alleged preference deal with Greens
A video circulating on social media appears to feature fake quotes from Albanese.
"We're proud to say we will preference the Greens … and we're grateful they have preferenced us," a voice says with pictures of Albanese speaking underneath.
But there's no evidence the Labor leader used those words at the Adelaide event, AAP FactCheck said.
Labor has suggested supporters give their second preference to the Greens in over two-thirds of lower house seats but this isn't the case in all 150 electorates.
Albanese has distanced himself from preference suggestions on how-to-vote cards, saying they were a matter for the organisational wing of the party.
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