Spurious claims are appearing about what each major party would do in government should it win the election. This article is part of a series on scare campaigns: their origins, how they are being spread, and how the claims stack up against the stated commitments of the parties.
With an election around the corner, the Coalition has returned to familiar territory, alleging that Labor would introduce a "death tax" if elected.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg recently told parliament that "death duties and [an] inheritance tax" were a "30-year project for the leader of the Labor Party".
In an opinion piece published in The Australian newspaper, Mr Frydenberg also warned of Labor's willingness to collaborate with the Greens to introduce "death duties".
But what evidence is there for such claims? Does Labor really support the introduction of a death or inheritance tax?
Death taxes in Australia
There are currently no direct inheritance or estate taxes in Australia, although an inheritance may carry tax implications for beneficiaries; for example, the disposal of an inherited asset may attract capital gains tax. Likewise, the inheritance of superannuation as a non-dependent.
However, inheritance taxes are levied in the majority of OECD nations and have previously existed in Australia.
There are basically two types of taxes that could be broadly considered "death taxes": "inheritance tax", which is levied on the value of assets inherited by an individual, and "estate tax", which involves taxing the value of a deceased estate prior to its distribution to beneficiaries.
Treasury says that estate taxes, or death duties, were historically "an important source of state revenue". They were first introduced by NSW in the early part of the 19th century and by the time of federation, in 1901, all of the former colonies had adopted a form of estate tax.
In 1914, at the outset of WWI, the federal Labor government under prime minister Andrew Fisher also introduced an "estate duty" in order to fund the war effort.
But more than 60 years later, death duties fell out of favour, with Queensland abolishing its inheritance taxes in 1977. Fearing mass interstate migration, the other states followed suit. By 1984, all estate taxes had been abolished at both state and federal levels.
The origin of the claim
The narrative regarding the supposed reintroduction of a "death tax" appears to have emerged in the lead up to the 2019 federal election.
In July the preceding year, the Daily Telegraph reported on an Australian Council of Trade Unions' policy document that indicated support for "consideration" of an inheritance tax.
"Powerful union leaders are calling for [then Labor leader] Bill Shorten to introduce a death tax in their latest demand ahead of the federal election," the article read.
The article actually noted that the then shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, had said Labor had "no plans" for an inheritance tax.
But this nuance was lost during a discussion of the article the following morning on Channel 7's Sunrise program.
A guest of the program, 2GB radio talkback host Chris Smith, suggested: "This is a glimpse at 2019 … under Bill Shorten where his puppet masters, the unions, say, 'come on, Bill, you have to do this — do you want that fighting fund for the next election?'"
"They want this inheritance tax because they live in a socialist world where those who have actually worked hard and created something for themselves and left something for their kids are somehow bad."
Days later, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party issued a news release claiming: "Yesterday, Union bosses with Bill Shorten's blessing told us Labor would like to reimplement a 'Death Tax' or 'Inheritance Tax' if Labor win the next election."
In January, 2019, Mr Shorten remarked during a news conference: "I mean, I don't know what they are going to dream up next. I wouldn't put it past this government this year, because they are so desperate, to say that Labor wants to introduce death taxes."
That same day, January 24, just months out from the election, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg responded, claiming that while Mr Shorten's remarks may have been flippant Labor frontbenchers and Labor-affiliated organisations supported such a policy and it was "not out of the question that Labor would consider taxing people beyond the grave".
How the claim was spread
According to an analysis by the director of RMIT University's Centre for Cyber Security Research, Matthew Warren, a deluge of misinformation about possible death taxes flooded social media channels following Mr Frydenberg's comments.
For his study, which investigated the presence of "fake news" in the 2019 election campaign, Professor Warren collected and analysed social media data from April 22 to May 16 — two days out from the poll.
The analysis revealed a series of memes, videos and social media posts about the "threat" of a Labor death tax were published via the accounts of Coalition MPs and across official party pages. Minor players, including Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party and the Great Australia Party, also shared the content.
The study concluded that "death tax stories had a big impact upon social media users", with more than a million people watching videos on Facebook and YouTube that alleged Labor would introduce a death tax.
In a statement on its website, Labor emphatically denied the claims saying: "Don't believe the fake news. Labor has no policy or secret deal to introduce an inheritance tax."
Labor also returned fire, suggesting that it was the Coalition, in fact, which had plans to introduce a death tax.
"Scott Morrison has previously indicated that he was open to an inheritance tax," Labor's statement read.
"When he was treasurer, Mr Morrison was asked about death duties and said, ‘We are not ruling anything in or anything out'."
A review of the 2019 election campaign by a group of leading Australian political science and media academics, reflected: "While the 'death tax' was fake news, it did evolve from mainstream media coverage and was therefore difficult for some viewers to discern as false."
Furthermore, they noted Labor's complicated proposed policy changes relating to franking credits and negative gearing made it difficult for some constituents to discern between false information and Labor's actual proposals.
During the 2020 Queensland election campaign, United Australia Party chairman Clive Palmer also used unsolicited text messages, social media and newspaper advertising to spread unsubstantiated claims of a state Labor plan to introduce a death tax.
Deja vu?
In a similar fashion to the 2019 federal campaign, the possibility of a "death tax" was again raised by The Australian in an article published in February this year.
The article outlined a "previously unreported" 1991 ALP conference speech in which Mr Albanese — then assistant general secretary of NSW Labor — called upon the federal government to consider an inheritance tax for the top 10 per cent of income earners.
"While Mr Albanese gave the speech three decades ago, the radical ideas he espoused epitomise his socialist past that he has sought to bury as he asks the Australian public to elect him prime minister," the article suggested.
Mr Frydenberg was also quoted in the article criticising Mr Albanese's historical position on "death duties".
That same day, Mr Frydenberg also began a Facebook advertising campaign, focused in his home state of Victoria, carrying a message that the Opposition Leader had in the past stood for an inheritance tax. Facebook's parent company, Meta, estimates the advertisements have been viewed around 300,000 times.
An identical advertisement published by fellow Melbourne-based Liberal MP Michael Sukkar has garnered a further 7,000 or so views.
An opinion piece penned by Mr Frydenberg also appeared in The Australian on February 14, in which the Treasurer suggested Labor would form a coalition with the Greens to re-introduce a death tax.
He also used parliament to make an almost identical claim, characterising an inheritance tax as "a 30-year project" of Mr Albanese.
What the Coalition says
When asked for evidence to support Mr Frydenberg's claim, a spokesman for the Treasurer produced an extract of a transcript of the 1991 National Labor Conference referenced in The Australian article.
The document — which was verified by the National Library of Australia — does confirm Mr Albanese put forward a motion at the conference in support of an inheritance tax.
Mr Frydenberg has also previously pointed to articles speaking to the benefits of such a policy that were published in 2006 by then Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, Andrew Leigh, when he was a professor of economics at Australian National University.
So, does Labor support a death tax?
Death taxes or an inheritance tax are not part of Labor's current official policy platform — nor were they in the lead-up to the 2019 election.
The 2019 "death tax" speculation has also been addressed in numerous academic studies which have labelled it "not part of Labor policy", "false", "fake news" and "a scare campaign".
At the time, investigations by journalists also found the claims to be erroneous.
Meanwhile, Mr Leigh has since stated he no longer supports such a policy.
In an interview with 2GB radio in 2019, he told listeners: "Thirteen years ago I was an academic floating an idea. Now, as a policymaker, I've been asked repeatedly my views on inheritance taxes, death taxes over the years. I've always said I don't support them; Labor doesn't support them."
Since the 2019 election, the only new information underpinning the Coalition's claim that Labor supports an inheritance tax appears to be Mr Albanese's decades-old comments at a Labor conference.
However, in its February report, The Australian quoted Mr Albanese as saying his historical positions had no bearing on Labor's current policy platform.
"It is a sign of the absolute desperation from a divided, dishonest and incompetent government that they are using taxpayer-funded staff to analyse debates which are more than three decades old," he said.
'Misleading', but not outside the rules
Graeme Orr, an electoral law expert and a professor in the University of Queensland's Law School, characterised advertising campaigns such as the Coalition's speculation about a Labor Party "death tax" as "misleading scare campaigns" but noted that rarely did they breach electoral advertising regulations.
Professor Orr told Fact Check some regulations prohibited "crude election misinformation"; for example, in relation to misleading people about how to vote.
However, he said there was "no law at a national level on truth in political campaigning".
While social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter were obliged to remove material that could mislead people on how to vote, they would not censor people for publishing material that misrepresented the views of their opponents, he said.
The bottom line
A death tax is not currently a part of the Labor party's official policy platform — nor was it in the lead up to the 2019 federal election.
While senior Labor figures Mr Albanese and Mr Leigh may have historically indicated support for an inheritance tax in their non-parliamentary roles, both have since indicated they no longer support such a policy.
