The Coalition
Fact check: Did Labor previously make the same arguments as the Government on company tax? Fact Check
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The Government has proposed a 10-year program of business tax cuts, beginning with a cut to a 27.5 per cent rate for companies with an annual turnover of less than $2 million. If the plan is implemented, the rate for all companies will fall to 25 per cent by 2026-27.
Labor says it will support the initial cut for small businesses with turnovers less than $2 million, but opposes the rest of the tax cuts, which it describes as a "massive tax cut to big multinationals" and "big end of town winners".
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says that Bill Shorten and Labor previously supported corporate tax cuts using the same arguments the Government uses today. ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: tax, federal-elections, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Fact check: Why Peter Dutton's claims on the Coalition's record on refugees get mixed verdicts Fact Check
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The Coalition is maintaining its tough stance on border protection heading into the election.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told ABC Radio that he was very proud of the Government's "outcomes" in his portfolio.
"I can say hand on heart that I've got every child out of detention, I've brought record numbers of refugees in by plane, nobody has drowned at sea under Operation Sovereign Borders," he said.
Is he correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, federal-elections, refugees, liberals, australia
Fact check: Was Labor responsible for 'a record deficit'? Fact Check
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Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has responded to the Opposition's plan to return the budget to balance by 2020-21, saying Labor could not be trusted to fulfil this promise.
"Labor when they came into government in 2007 inherited a $20 billion surplus and turned that into a record deficit," he said.
Was Labor responsible for "a record deficit"? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: budget, federal-elections, liberals, australia
Fact check: Can ASIC do the same job as a financial industry royal commission? Fact Check
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One of Labor's higher profile election policies is a promise to hold a royal commission into "misconduct in the banking and financial services industry".
On April 11, 2016, Treasurer Scott Morrison responded by saying that a royal commission is unnecessary as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, can do the job.
Is Mr Morrison correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: banking, federal-elections, scott-morrison, liberals, australia
Fact check: Have bulk billing rates increased under the Coalition? Fact Check
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Labor have promised to protect bulk billing by removing a freeze on Medicare rebates paid to doctors.
The Coalition defended the freeze by saying that bulk billing rates have increased while they have been in office.
Have bulk billing rates increased under the Coalition? ABC Fact Check takes a look.
Topics: federal-elections, health, health-policy, liberals, australia
Fact check: Are the Government's super changes 'not at all' retrospective? Fact Check
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In the 2016 budget, the Government announced some changes to the tax concessions available through superannuation.
Some have criticised these changes as being retrospective, something the Government has strongly denied.
ABC Fact Check takes a closer look.
Topics: superannuation, tax, liberals, turnbull-malcolm, australia
Fact Check zombie: Malcolm Turnbull repeats Joe Hockey's negative gearing claim
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As the election campaign begins, the Coalition seems intent on making Labor's proposed changes to negative gearing an election issue.
At the first leaders debate on May 16, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told an audience of 100 undecided voters that Labor's policy would push up rents.
Asked by moderator David Speers how the Prime Minister knew this would happen, Mr Turnbull said that it would cause investors to leave the market, and that "the investors that are left will have to seek a higher return and this is exactly what happened, in the '80s, when Paul Keating banned negative gearing..."
Fact Check tested a similar claim from former treasurer Joe Hockey in 2015, which didn't stack up.
Topics: tax, housing, liberals, turnbull-malcolm, australia
Fact check: Is the Government not yet in caretaker mode? Fact Check
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"We are not in caretaker mode yet," Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said at a doorstop interview on May 12, ahead of a defence industry roundtable in Adelaide.
Reporters asked Mr Pyne and Defence Minister Marise Payne if it was appropriate to hold the forum at the start of an election campaign.
"Marise and I are still the active, hands-on ministers for industry and defence," Mr Pyne said.
ABC Fact Check investigates
Topics: federal-elections, liberals, australia
Fact check: Do two-thirds of negative gearers earn under $80,000? Fact Check
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Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer says that Labor's policy on negative gearing disadvantages average earners who rely on salaries or wages.
Ms O'Dwyer said on the ABC's Q&A on May 9 that Labor wanted to allow "people who are very, very wealthy" to use negative gearing by deducting property rental income against other investment income.
"The average income earner who relies on a salary or a wage won't be able to do that," she said.
"And two-thirds of people who negatively gear, two-thirds of people, have an income of around about $80,000 or less and that is more than 47,000 teachers who negatively gear, more than 40,000 nurses and midwives negatively gear."
Is she correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Promise Tracker: How does the Coalition's record stack up as the nation heads to a new election?
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The Coalition took a long list of promises to the 2013 election.
Whether they were contained in policy documents, or memorably, pitched by then opposition leader Tony Abbott on SBS the night before the election, ABC Fact Check sought to track a range of promises — 78 to be exact — which captured a wide variety of policy areas, not to mention geographical locations.
On May 8, 2016, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used the blocking of the bill to re-establish the ABCC as a trigger to call a double dissolution election, putting the Government into caretaker mode.
Check the tally to see which promises the Coalition kept, and those that fell short of the mark.
Topics: federal-elections, liberals, nationals, australia
Fact check: Did industrial disputes fall under the ABCC and rise after it was abolished? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will call a double dissolution election if the Senate fails to pass the Government's legislation to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said on April 7 that delays in construction increase costs.
"When the ABCC was introduced, [the rate of industrial disputes] dropped to two times the all-industries average. As soon as the former Labor government abolished the ABCC and watered down the regulator... in terms of days lost it jumped back to four times the all-industries average," she said.
Did the rate of industrial disputes in construction compared with all industries halve when the ABCC was in force and then double when it was abolished? ABC Fact Check takes a look at the data.
Topics: building-and-construction, industrial-relations, unions, liberals, australia
Fact check: Is Labor's increased tobacco excise a 'workers tax'? Fact Check
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In a speech to Liberal party members, former prime minister Tony Abbott labelled planned increases to tobacco excise tax as a "workers tax" that slugs smokers.
ABC Fact Check has taken a look at the statistics of who smokes to work out whether an increase to excise can properly be described as a tax on workers.
Topics: tobacco, smoking, tax, liberals, abbott-tony, australia
Fact Check zombie: Josh Frydenberg repeats incorrect claim on emissions reduction targets
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In 2015, Australia went to the Paris climate conference with a reduction target of 26 to 28 per cent of its 2005 emissions by 2030.
Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, Josh Frydenberg, characterised this target as "extremely significant" on ABC TV's Q&A.
"The target we took to Paris which was to reduce our emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, saw the second highest target taken to Paris on a per capita basis," he said.
Fact Check tested a similar claim from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before the Paris conference in 2015 — that claim was found to be incorrect.
Topics: climate-change, pollution, liberals, australia
Fact check: Why Michaelia Cash's claims on 457 visas get mixed verdicts Fact Check
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Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has attacked Labor's record on imported workers.
"457 workers account for less than one per cent of Australia's workforce. Under the Coalition Government, the number of 457 people coming to Australia has declined from that under Labor, where it effectively doubled when Labor was in office," she said on the ABC's Q&A on March 7, 2016.
Is she correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: work, immigration, liberals, australia
Fact check: Do most negative gearers earn a modest income? Fact Check
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Treasurer Scott Morrison says that the vast majority of Australians who use negative gearing, like nurses, teachers and police, earn "modest" incomes.
"I have always understood that for the vast majority of Australians who use negative gearing they are modest income earning Australians, nurses, teachers, police," he said.
Are most people taking advantage of negative gearing earning modest incomes? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: tax, housing, business-economics-and-finance, liberals, australia
Fact Check: Has the number of children in detention dropped from 2,000 to about 75 under the Coalition? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says there were 2,000 kids in detention when the Coalition took office and now "there's less than 100. . . About 75."
He says the number is reducing.
Is he correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, children, refugees, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Fact check: Did defence spending under Labor drop to its lowest level since 1938? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has committed the Government to a rise in defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP.
Ahead of the release of the defence white paper, Mr Turnbull attacked the previous Labor government's record on defence spending.
"Under Labor, defence spending as a share of GDP dropped to its lowest level since 1938," he said.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: defence-forces, defence-and-aerospace-industries, defence-industry, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Fact check: Were 301,000 jobs created in 2015? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been keen to spruik the Government's economic credentials in relation to employment growth.
"I mean we've created 300,000 — 301,000 new jobs in Australia last year," he said in an interview on Radio 3AW in January.
Were over 300,000 jobs created in Australia in 2015? ABC Fact Check investigates
Topics: unemployment, economic-trends, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Fact check: Is Australia's military contribution to the fight against Islamic State the second largest? Fact Check
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"Australia is already the second largest military contributor to the campaign against ISIL in the US-led coalition," Julie Bishop said in a doorstop interview at Old Parliament House.
Is Australia's contribution to the US-led campaign against the Islamic State the second largest after the US itself?
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, defence-and-national-security, liberals, australia
Fact check: Do the Nationals represent Australia's poorest electorates? Fact Check
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Deputy Leader of the Nationals Barnaby Joyce believes that the constituents that his party represents are worse off than those in other electorates.
"Our constituents are the poorest, that's one thing we do know and so we are always looking out for them," he said.
Do the Nationals represent the nation's poorest electorates? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: poverty, political-parties, nationals, australia
Fact check: Is Australia's emissions reduction target second only to Brazil's? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told Parliament Australia's emissions reduction targets of 26 to 28 per cent are "credible and substantial".
"When they are measured on a per capita basis, which is the only way they can reasonably be compared with other countries, they are second only to the emission cuts offered by Brazil," he said.
How do Australia's emissions reduction targets compare on a per capita basis? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: climate-change, environmental-policy, turnbull-malcolm, liberals, australia
Fact check: How do Australia's carbon emissions targets compare? Fact Check
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Ahead of the Paris climate change conference, Australia, along with many other countries, has submitted its contribution towards cutting carbon emissions.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australia's target of a 26 to 28 reduction on 2005 carbon emissions levels by 2030 is "comparable to other countries similarly situated".
Are Australia's targets comparable to "similarly situated" countries? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: climate-change, environmental-impact, emissions-trading, liberals, turnbull-malcolm, australia
Fact check: Does Australia export cleaner coal than many other countries? Fact Check
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that if Australia were to stop all of its coal exports, countries that buy it would import it from somewhere else.
He said that such a move, far from reducing global emissions, would arguably increase them "because our coal, by and large, is cleaner than the coal in many other countries".
Does Australia export cleaner coal than other coal-producing countries? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: coal, mining-industry, climate-change, environmental-impact, mining-environmental-issues, pollution, air-pollution, turnbull-malcolm, earth-sciences, geology, liberals, australia
Fact check: Was superannuation designed to get people off the pension? Fact Check
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Superannuation policy is never far from the headlines.
Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer recently claimed that super was designed to be an alternative to the aged pension, introduced so people would not receive a full or part pension.
But is she correct? ABC Fact Check takes a closer look.
Topics: superannuation, social-policy, government-and-politics, welfare, tax, liberals, australia
Fact check: Christopher Pyne's claims on private schools and religion get mixed verdicts Fact Check
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Concerns radicalised students are preaching extremist views in school prayer groups have intensified since a western Sydney teenager shot dead a police accountant on October 2.
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne, says he has no problem with prayer in government or non-government schools.
"We have the highest penetration of non-government schools in the OECD in Australia. Almost all of those are religious schools," he said.
ABC Fact Check investigates whether Australia has the highest proportion of students attending private schools in the OECD, and if almost all Australian private schools are religious.
Topics: liberals, religion-and-beliefs, education, australia
Fast facts
- Between 2014 and 2015, the number of students enrolled in schools in Australia grew by 56,872 (1.5%) to a total of 3,750,973. The increase was greater in government schools (1.6%) than non-government schools (1.4%).
- In January 2016, 30.5 per cent of federal parliamentarians were women. There is a higher proportion of women in the Senate (38 per cent) than in the House of Representatives (27 per cent).
- The proportion of Australians who were born overseas has hit its highest point in over 120 years, with 28 per cent of Australia's population born outside the country.
- In 2015, There were 4.3 million Australians with disability — that’s nearly one in five people (18.3% of the total population). After removing the effects of different age structures, the age standardised disability rate for all people was 17.0%.
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