Peter Dutton has said that truth in political advertising is “probably welcome”, signalling a shift that could see the opposition support a Labor push for new laws to safeguard elections.
The special minister of state, Don Farrell, is expected to introduce legislation by mid-year to introduce caps on electoral spending and donations, and new powers for an independent regulator to enforce truth in political advertising.
Farrell first revealed the plans in July 2022, before an electoral matters inquiry in which the Liberal party resisted both caps and truth in advertising. The Liberals’ federal director, Andrew Hirst, had submitted that Labor lacked a mandate because it had not proposed the policies before the 2022 election.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has met with crossbenchers, suggesting that the truth laws and caps could be legislated this term but not applied until after the next election.
The electoral matters inquiry recommended truth in political advertising modelled on the South Australian laws, which allow the electoral commission to demand that advertisers withdraw a publication and publish a retraction if a statement of fact is inaccurate and misleading to a material extent.
Responding to reports on Thursday the Albanese government was planning to adopt the SA model, Dutton questioned the credibility of Labor and its affiliated unions, citing the “Mediscare” campaign to claim they were “experts” in election scare campaigns.
“Don Farrell’s trying to put a good face on this, but I suspect he’s up against it when he’s got the [unions] telling him that they should be running all sorts of dodgy ad campaigns,” Dutton told reporters in Melbourne.
“It’s probably welcome, but we’ll see what impact it has, and I really believe that, I think there’s a lot of window dressing here, and frankly, there’s not much substance to what he’s saying.”
The independent MP Zali Steggall, who has introduced a private member’s bill for truth in political advertising, welcomed signs from the government and opposition in favour of the new laws.
“Every survey shows a declining trust in politics and politicians by the public,” Steggall told Guardian Australia. “It should be a multipartisan concern. Everyone should be supporting bringing political advertising into line with commercial advertising.
“Truth in political advertising and voter protections are needed as soon as possible, to avoid advertising that is misleading and deceptive.
“If there is multipartisan support it would be disappointing if the next election were put at risk by delaying implementation of the reform.”
This week the billionaire businessman Clive Palmer warned Labor against legislating electoral spending and donation caps, accusing it of attempting to “silence the diversity of ideas in this country” and hinting at a possible high court challenge.
The Albanese government may need Coalition support for caps given warnings from the Greens that it would not support any attempt to “rig the electoral funding system, making it harder for Greens candidates, or independents, to compete fairly”.
A spokesperson for the shadow special minister of state, Jane Hume, said “we will wait for the government to put forward a response to the final report of [the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters] and then consider our position through the normal party processes”.
The independent senator David Pocock said “you shouldn’t be allowed to lie to win an election”.
“Electoral reform is long overdue. Let’s get it done – and done right – before the next election.”
