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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Olivia Ireland

AEC received complaints about anti-Pocock robocalls

A fake David Pocock truck. Picture: Keegan Carroll

The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed they received complaints about the extreme right-wing lobby group, Advance Australia, for their robocalls the night before the election.

Independent ACT Senate candidate David Pocock, a likely winner of the race, faced intense negative campaigning from Advance Australia labelling him as an "extreme Green" as the right-wing group encouraged votes for Liberal rival Zed Seselja.

On Friday, May 20, the night before the election, robocalls circulated across the ACT, polling if people thought The Canberra Times was biased through its coverage of Mr Pocock.

The AEC confirmed they received complaints about Advance Australia's different robocalls across last week, including two complaints specifically about the right-wing group's "Canberra Times bias" robocall.

Regardless of the complaints, the AEC will not act on this specific incident at this stage.

"Content of such material is something that is not covered by electoral laws unless it could mislead people about the physical act of casting a vote - something this particular robocall did not," a spokesperson said.

"However, as with all electoral matter, there are authorisation particulars that need to be met. This is something we looked at for Advance robocalls in the final week of the election and liaised with the entity on."

On polling day last Saturday, Mr Pocock denounced the robocalls, saying it was "such poor form" and "it's more of the stuff that we're so sick of in politics".

Liberal Senator Zed Seselja, whose spot in parliament is increasingly in doubt, said he "didn't get any" calls when asked.

Throughout the election, Advance Australia rolled out multiple controversial campaigns against candidates, in particular Mr Pocock when signage targeted him as a "Greens Superman".

Threats of legal action led to the signs being "paused" however Mr Pocock had put in a complaint to the AEC over the robocalls, calling them "desperate".

Both Mr Pocock and Mr Seselja remain in contention for the second ACT Senate seat as local poll counting continues, with the winner set to be determined by preferences.

ACT Labor Senator Katy Gallagher retained her spot through receiving the highest number of first preference votes and ultimately achieving the quota, and was sworn in on Monday, May 23 as Finance Minister, Minister for Women and Attorney-General.

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