A topic returned to a few times during Tuesday’s public hearing for the inquiry into the 2022 federal election was which agency should be responsible for regulating truth in political advertising.
Thus far, each regulator who has spoken at these hearings has recommended against being responsible, citing the perception it would cause about the various agencies’ independence.
The AEC was the first a few weeks ago to state it did not want to regulate truth in political advertising, suggesting a separate agency should be responsible.
On Tuesday, ACMA’s Creina Chapman said it was always going to be an issue whether government would be the “right party” to be regulating this area.
“We are an independent regulator, which puts us in a different situation to, say, a government department, but there is still an issue,” the deputy chair and CEO said.
“There needs to be independence and it needs to be seen to be independence.”
Chapman added she thought a regulatory scheme should have publishers involved, it should not be a purely government regulator.
In its submission, ACMA noted the role of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), a non-government self-regulatory body that is the mechanism that regulates advertising in the country.
At the moment, the AANA’s Code of Ethics prohibits misleading or deceptive advertising, with the exception of political advertising.
“Ultimately, political advertising is run at the discretion of each broadcaster or publisher, and there is no obligation for this content to be truthful – provided it meets the appropriate tagging requirements and is not likely to mislead or deceive electors about the process of casting a vote,” ACMA’s submission read.
For the ACCC — the agency that appeared later in the day — officials said that although the agency does regulate misleading and deceptive conduct, it still goes through the courts.
“We operate in the judicial system, where we must take ultimately matters to court,” ACCC CEO Scott Gregson said.
Like the AEC and ACMA, the ACCC recommended against being given the responsibility to regulate truth in political advertising.
“The ACCC has a pretty good track record of taking on new roles and responsibilities, certainly not shirking public interest where we can.
“This is one, though, we do think it’s fairly fundamental in terms of our framing, and one that we would, quite frankly, recommend against the ACCC or our legislation being a vehicle [for].”
ABC’s editorial director Craig McCurtrie appeared in the afternoon and stated that as the ABC does not accept paid advertising, he felt he could not illuminate the matter further.
McCurtrie did, however, shed light on some of the difficulties in the space.
“Our laws were constructed to deal with traditional ways of publishing and mainstream broadcasting.
“But increasingly, there is more and more activity online, micro-targeting, closed chat rooms, voter profiles being built, and all of that is extremely difficult to regulate,” the editorial director said.
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AEC says separate agency should be responsible for truth in political advertising
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