Posted
| UpdatedLabor's infrastructure and transport spokesman Anthony Albanese says the Greens' "actual position is to not have an airport in Sydney".
He says that the party's policy is to close Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport while at the same time opposing the new airport at Badgerys Creek, Western Sydney.
Do the Greens really want Sydney to be without an airport? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: air-transport, government-and-politics, greens, alp, rail-transport, nsw, newtown-2042, sydney-2000, sydney-airport-2020, sydney-international-airport-2020, mascot-2020, badgerys-creek-2171, campbelltown-2560
Posted
On June 8, Labor released its economic policy for the election, which it calls the "10 Year Plan for Australia's Economy".
At the launch, Mr Bowen held up the document and said the plan is "the most comprehensive plan an opposition has released in living memory on our economy".
How does Labor's "10 Year Plan" compare with those of past oppositions? ABC Fact Check finds out.
Topics: budget, economic-trends, alp, chris-bowen, australia
Posted
| UpdatedLabor's 10-year plan for the economy, released a month before the election, says that the Liberals' record on economic management is "in tatters" after three years in government.
"Wages growth is now the lowest it's been since records began," it notes.
Is wages growth the lowest it's been since records began? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: economic-trends, federal-elections, alp, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOne 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
Posted
| UpdatedIn 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
Posted
| UpdatedThe Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union says that if the office of the Australian Building and Construction Commission is brought back, workers will have less rights than an ice dealer.
It points to the "right to remain silent" and the "right to a lawyer of your choice".
Is the CFMEU on the money, or is the Government right when it says the comparison is "absurd"?
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: unions, building-and-construction, advertising, federal-elections, australia
Posted
| UpdatedPrime 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
Posted
| UpdatedFederal MP for the Queensland seat of Fairfax, Clive Palmer, has used Question Time to push the Government to allow people to access part of their super early, to "buy a home or support their family in difficult times."
Mr Palmer claimed that "A large percentage of Australians will be dead before they are eligible [to use their super]."
Mr Palmer made a similar claim in 2014, which Fact Check found to be wrong.
Topics: superannuation, tax, clive-palmer, minor-parties, australia
Posted
| UpdatedTreasurer 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
Posted
| UpdatedIn January, the Federal Opposition announced a 10-year, $37.3 billion education plan.
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen says that the Opposition has "fully provisioned" for the costs of the plan, based on already announced savings including increased taxes on corporations, superannuation and tobacco.
But how realistic are these savings? And how reliable are 10-year budget projections? ABC Fact Check takes a closer look.
Topics: budget, education, bill-shorten, schools, superannuation, smoking, tax, alp, australia
Posted
| UpdatedPrime 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
Posted
| UpdatedPrime 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
Posted
| UpdatedThe Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment agreement has been formally signed by 12 ministers in Auckland.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has spoken in the Senate about the agreement: "It has been put to me that, if a government introduced poker machine legislation to protect consumers, an overseas poker machine manufacturer could end up suing that government for doing what was clearly in the public interest."
Can poker machine manufacturers sue the Government under the TPP? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: gambling, trade, law-crime-and-justice, international-law, globalisation---economy, business-economics-and-finance, australia, united-states
Posted
| UpdatedThe gap between rich and poor is reaching fresh extremes, according to a new Oxfam report.
Oxfam Australia CEO Helen Szoke told ABC radio that the report showed the inequality gap was widening faster than previously thought.
The Oxfam report states that: "In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people – the bottom half of humanity.
This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010."
Do 62 individuals have the same wealth as 3.6 billion people, and has the unequal concentration of wealth worsened in the last five years? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: economic-trends, money-and-monetary-policy, poverty
Posted
| UpdatedThe full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was released by the Government on November 5, 2015 and we asked for your help in analysing it.
You told us what you found interesting, what has been under-reported and those issues you feel need further explanation.
Whether you are a farmer, businessman, activist or concerned citizen, ABC Fact Check has consulted experts about your TPP questions.
Topics: trade, world-politics, globalisation---economy, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAhead 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
Posted
| UpdatedPrime 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
Posted
| UpdatedSuperannuation 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
Posted
| UpdatedTechnology company Uber is shaking up public transport markets around the world with a smart phone application that connects passengers with drivers of vehicles such as taxis, hire cars, passenger vehicles and in some countries even auto-rickshaws.
In Australia, the taxi industry says it is the victim of a "very uneven playing field", whereas Uber is pressing for what it says are "sensible" changes to the law.
CEO of the Victorian Taxi Association, David Samuel, told radio 3AW that "there is a set of rules in place and none of those rules inhibit Uber from providing the service they provide, they just don't want to bear the costs that we bear".
Do laws need to change, or is Uber just trying to dodge the fees that the operators of taxis and hire cars have to pay? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: transport, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedSex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said there are fewer big Australian companies run by women than by men named Peter, and companies run by men named Peter, Michael, David or Andrew outnumber those run by women four to one.
Ms Broderick finished in September after eight years in the job.
ABC Fact Check investigates how her numbers stack up.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, australia
Posted
| UpdatedABC Fact Check has been keeping tabs on Joe Hockey's claims since its establishment, shortly before the 2013 election.
Five days after Tony Abbott was deposed as prime minister by Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Hockey announced that he would not seek a place in the new ministry and that he intended to resign from the House of Representatives.
So now that Mr Hockey's tenure as treasurer is over, how does his record of verdicts stack up?
Topics: government-and-politics, liberals, economic-trends, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Federal Government's health star rating system is appearing on more and more food products on supermarket shelves.
The slogan is: "The more stars, the healthier the choice."
But just how useful is the star system in making healthier food choices, and do more stars mean a healthier choice? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: health, health-policy, food-and-beverage, australia
Posted
| UpdatedTony Abbott says Australia's recently announced carbon emissions targets for 2030 are "not leading" and "certainly not lagging" the field and emissions reduction targets per capita are the "best in the developed world".
But the Federal Opposition and the Climate Change Authority have said Australia is not pulling its weight on preventing climate change. How do Australia's emissions targets compare with other countries? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: emissions-trading, environment, climate-change, environmental-policy, abbott-tony, greenhouse-gas, australia
Posted
| UpdatedTreasurer Joe Hockey said newly released Treasury documents show electricity prices have come down $550 per household since abolishing the carbon tax.
But experts estimates don't come close to the $550 figure. ABC Fact Check investigates
Topics: electricity-energy-and-utilities, environmental-policy, federal-government, hockey-joe, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Abbott Government has claimed the free trade agreement Australia signed with China in June is a landmark deal that will underpin Australia's future prosperity.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says it will net Australia billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
But unions say the deal threatens Australian jobs.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: trade, government-and-politics, australia