Posted
| UpdatedThe 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
Posted
| UpdatedLabor has announced the policy that it will take to the election on the National Broadband Network, promising to install more fibre across the country than the Coalition's current plan
Opposition communications spokesman Jason Clare says Australia's internet speed has dropped from 30th to 60th in the world under the Coalition.
Is he correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: alp, government-and-politics, information-and-communication, internet-technology, australia
Posted
| UpdatedLabor 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
Posted
| UpdatedGreens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Indigenous children are severely disadvantaged, compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts.
In a discussion on ABC's Q&A about comments in the media about the welfare of Indigenous kids, Senator Hanson-Young said that Indigenous children are 10 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be living out of home.
Is she correct? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: australian-greens, sarah-hanson-young, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, child-abuse, children
Posted
| UpdatedWomen's sport in Australia attracts growing numbers of spectators at the game and on television, but for most codes, numbers still languish behind the men's games.
Alex Blackwell, the Australian women's cricket team vice-captain, claims the Women's Big Bash League out-rated the men's A-League on television.
ABC Fact Check investigates whether the new women's cricket league attracted more viewers than Australia's premier men's football league.
Posted
| UpdatedEmployment 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
Posted
| Updated"As long as 2.5 million Australians live below the poverty line, and one out of every four are children ... We cannot say the fair go belongs to all," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said in a speech on Australia Day, 2015.
Are 2.5 million Australians in poverty, and are a quarter of those Australians children? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: poverty, welfare, children, bill-shorten, alp, australia
Posted
| UpdatedDeputy 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
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
| UpdatedThe Government has announced Australia will resettle 12,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict this year.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said this means Australia's refugee intake for this year will be the largest single refugee intake since World War II.
ABC Fact Check investigates Australia's historical refugee numbers.
Topics: 20th-century, world-war-2, immigration, bishop-julie, australia, syrian-arab-republic
Posted
| UpdatedAgriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says that the proposed Shenhua Watermark coal mine on the Liverpool Plains in NSW will be "in the middle of Australia's best agricultural land. There might be other land that is as good, but there's none better".
Is the mine actually located in the middle of the Liverpool Plains, and are the Liverpool Plains Australia's best agricultural land? ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: environment, nationals, gunnedah-2380, breeza-2381
Posted
| UpdatedA recent Federal Court decision set aside approval of a Queensland mine, because the Federal Government had not properly considered environmental advice around two vulnerable species in the area.
Richard Di Natale says it is important that endangered species be considered by the courts because Australia has "one of the highest loss of species anywhere in the world". ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: environment, greens, conservation, richard-di-natale, 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
Posted
| UpdatedOpposition Leader Bill Shorten has announced a plan to generate 50 per cent of Australia's electricity by renewable energy by 2030.
Mr Shorten has encouraged Australians to install solar panels on their roofs, saying Australia has more solar coverage in terms of per square metre than any other continent in the world.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at how Australia stacks up.
Topics: environment, alp, bill-shorten, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedNew South Wales Premier Mike Baird wants an increase to the GST to help state and territory governments meet the increasing costs of healthcare.
He says Australia's rate of GST is 'right down the bottom' of OECD nations, and that the average rate of GST is closer to 20 per cent.
So, how does Australia's GST compare with the goods and services taxes levied by other countries?
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: government-and-politics, tax, federal---state-issues, australia
Posted
| UpdatedHuman rights advocates are challenging the Abbott Government's spending on offshore processing. They claim money spent on offshore detention could be much better spent on developing 'safe pathways to protection' for refugees.
Advocates say that Australia's offshore processing spending is five times the UNHCR budget for South East Asia. ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: immigration, budget, government-and-politics, world-politics, refugees, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAllegations that the Abbott Government paid people smugglers to turn a boatload of asylum seekers back to Indonesia have raised questions about the legality of doing so.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the allegations were serious, and that if they were true the Government had broken the law.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at possible breaches of the law.
Topics: international-law, law-crime-and-justice, greens, immigration, richard-di-natale, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAmnesty International says the rate at which Indigenous children are jailed is 24 times higher than for non-indigenous children, and higher than the incarceration rate for black children in the United States.
ABC Fact check investigates.
Topics: discrimination, children, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, law-crime-and-justice, police, prisons-and-punishment, australia, wa
Posted
| UpdatedFollowing the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Bali, debate about the role of the death penalty in society has led to calls for Australia to push for an end to the punishment around the world.
During a visit to Bali in February, Victorian Supreme Court judge Lex Lasry said the death penalty does not deter crime.
ABC Fact Check examines the evidence.
Topics: government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, australia, indonesia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Human Rights Commission's controversial report into children in immigration detention was tabled in the federal parliament in the first sitting week of 2015.
Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs said the inquiry was necessary because children had been spending too long in detention in the months after the Abbott government was elected.
ABC Fact Check investigates whether the length of time children were held in detention increased after the Coalition took office.
Topics: immigration, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedQueensland Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeatedly criticised the Newman Government for failing to lower the unemployment rate, claiming Queensland's figures are dire.
Ahead of the Queensland election Fact Check takes a look at unemployment in the state.
Topics: government-and-politics, unemployment, alp, qld
Posted
| UpdatedVictorian Premier Denis Napthine says his Government has "improved train punctuality".
Melbourne's trains have long been a pressure point for Victorian governments, Labor or Coalition, and this election is no different.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at the Coalition's record on metropolitan train punctuality.
Topics: government-and-politics, rail-transport, elections, advertising, federal---state-issues, liberals, vic
Posted
| UpdatedIn a leaders debate on August 11, 2013, then opposition leader Tony Abbott pledged to decide on a site for Sydney's second airport within his first term of government if elected.
Topics: air-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, liberals, sydney-2000, badgerys-creek-2171, australia, nsw
Posted
| UpdatedSocial Services Minister Kevin Andrews says de facto relationships are more likely to break up than marriages.
Mr Andrews is currently overseeing the trial of a program that gives counselling vouchers to married and de facto couples, in an attempt to help curb separation rates.
ABC Fact Check takes a look at the success and failure of marriage and de facto partnerships.
Topics: relationships, divorce, marriage, community-and-society, liberals, social-policy, federal-government, australia
Posted
| UpdatedLabor frontbencher Anthony Albanese is concerned about how the Government's new counter-terrorism laws will affect the media.
"The media laws... when we talk about potential penalties of five to 10 years' jail for exposing what might be an error made by the security agencies," Mr Albanese said.
ABC Fact Check examines whether journalists face up to 10 years' jail for exposing errors made by security agencies.
Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, federal-government, government-and-politics, media, information-and-communication, alp, anthony-albanese, law-crime-and-justice, australia
Posted
| UpdatedGreens deputy leader Adam Bandt says the Federal Government has cut spending on science, research and innovation to an "historic low".
ABC Fact Check finds his claim checks out.
It's estimated research and development spending will be 0.56 per cent of GDP in 2014-15, which is the lowest level in decades.
Topics: research, medical-research, government-and-politics, federal-government, political-parties, greens, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Abbott Government celebrated one year in office on September 7, 2014.
In a message on the Liberal Party's YouTube channel Prime Minister Tony Abbott listed the Government's achievements and said: "Over 100,000 new jobs have been created since the end of last year."
ABC Fact Check takes a look at job creation in 2014.
Topics: federal-government, liberals, work, business-economics-and-finance, abbott-tony, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAs Australia's involvement in the Middle East conflict against the Islamic State deepens, the Greens want that involvement debated and approved by Parliament.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Coalition Government will continue to exercise the power to unilaterally make decisions about sending troops overseas, as this is what "has always been done".
ABC Fact Check looks at how past governments have decided to deploy troops overseas.
Topics: federal-government, bishop-julie, liberals, unrest-conflict-and-war, world-war-2, world-war-1, history, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAustralia may be known for its unique plants and animals, but how many are undiscovered?
"There's estimated to be about 75 per cent of Australia's biodiversity that's largely unknown. So there's certainly a lot out there still to find," Bush Blitz manager Jo Harding says.
On National Threatened Species Day, Fact Check investigates whether Australia really does only know about a quarter of its plants and animals.
Topics: biological-diversity, environment, animals, science-and-technology, australia
Posted
| UpdatedCoalition policy documents say Australia could become the 'food bowl of Asia', but Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says the notion is ridiculous.
"We only produce about 1 per cent of the agricultural product of the world and to start saying that this country... is going to be a predominant player on the global stage is not correct," Mr Joyce said.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: food-and-beverage, business-economics-and-finance, industry, rural, food-processing, federal-government, nationals, political-parties, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
Three months after the May budget, the Coalition is still struggling to sell its economic strategy. Senior ministers are trying to pressure Labor to cooperate.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says "Labor is opposing... $5 billion in savings" which it initiated when it was in government.
ABC Fact Check looks at whether Labor really is blocking its own measures.
Topics: federal-government, budget, education, business-economics-and-finance, tax, liberals, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedMinister for Social Services, Kevin Andrews, has repeatedly labelled the disability support pension a 'set and forgotten' payment. But does the government really just forget about recipients who may be capable of working?
Topics: federal-government, welfare, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Coalition promised to hold a National Commission of Audit to examine reducing the size of government.
Topics: federal-government, budget, liberals, abbott-tony, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Senate has passed legislation which establishes the Government's Emissions Reduction Fund.
The fund is the centrepiece of the Coalition's "direct action plan" to address climate change.
The Clean Energy Regulator is authorised to commit $2.55 billion under contract from the commencement of the fund, delivering on the Coalition's promise.
Topics: emissions-trading, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Coalition promised to make compensation for victims of terrorist attacks committed overseas retrospective - applying to any Australian victims of terrorism since September 10, 2001.
Topics: terrorism, unrest-conflict-and-war, abbott-tony, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOn November 29, 2012, in the wake of claims about then prime minister Julia Gillard's conduct in relation to the Australian Workers' Union, Tony Abbott called for a judicial inquiry into union corruption.
Topics: liberals, political-parties, federal-government, government-and-politics, unions, australia
Posted
| UpdatedIn his campaign launch speech on August 25, 2013, Tony Abbott promised to give apprentices access to a $20,000 loan under a Coalition government.
Topics: education, apprenticeships, federal-government, abbott-tony, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOn September 4, 2013, the Liberal Party promised that, if elected, "a Coalition government will establish a new 'seniors employment incentive payment' of $3,250 for employers that hire mature workers aged 50 or older and keep them on for at least six months."
Topics: community-and-society, federal-government, work, unemployment, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Coalition's National Broadband Network plan presented to voters before the 2013 federal election promised three reviews into aspects of the NBN infrastructure project.
Topics: information-and-communication, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedIn 2011, the former Labor government introduced the "Future of Financial Advice" (FOFA) reforms after a series of financial collapses. Some in the financial planning industry suggested Labor's reforms went too far, adding costs and complexity to businesses which they then passed on to consumers.
Topics: consumer-finance, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe sale of health insurer Medibank Private has been part of Coalition policy for years - the Howard government passed legislation enabling the sale in 2006. In February 2010, then opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey pledged to "sell Medibank Private and use every dollar from the proceeds to help pay down Labor's debt".
Topics: federal-government, health, abbott-tony, liberals, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Coalition is on a campaign to persuade the public that Australia needs to reduce its debt.
Treasurer Joe Hockey, one of 33 Coalition members to raise the topic of Australia's interest bill over a single week in May, told Parliament that Labor was to blame.
"At the moment we are paying a billion dollars a month... in interest on the debt that Labor has left," Mr Hockey said.
Topics: hockey-joe, liberals, federal-government, business-economics-and-finance, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOne of the revenue measures announced in the 2014-15 federal Budget was an increase in the fuel excise.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the change would not make a major dent in family finances: "The fuel excise indexation will cost the average family 40 cents a week in year one."
Fact Check investigates.
Topics: federal-government, business-economics-and-finance, abbott-tony, liberals, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAustralia is on the verge of resettling asylum seekers on Nauru who are found to be refugees in Cambodia.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended criticism about the move, saying "resettlement is not a ticket to a first-class economy".
But human rights lawyer David Manne says Cambodia is "engulfed in a human rights crisis", and is in no position to accept Australia's refugees. Fact Check examines the evidence.
Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, federal-government, immigration, law-crime-and-justice, rights, australia, cambodia
Posted
| UpdatedThe single biggest saving made in the 2014 federal budget was a reduction in foreign aid spending.
World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello says the cut makes up about one fifth of overall budget savings, while foreign aid is only 1.3 per cent of total spending.
ABC Fact Check examines his claim.
Topics: federal-government, budget, foreign-affairs, relief-and-aid-organisations, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Federal Government has vowed to address what it has called Australia's "budget emergency".
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie says to do that Australia needs to strengthen its tax base.
"Clearly revenue is a problem, we're still one of the lowest taxing countries in the OECD," she said.
Topics: tax, budget, federal-government, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOpposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has repeatedly accused the Coalition of using "voodoo economics" to create a sense of crisis to justify dramatic spending cuts in the May 13 budget.
"Joe Hockey has doubled the deficit, adding $68 billion to the deficit by changes to government spending and changes to government assumptions, and now he's asking the Australian people to pay for it", Mr Bowen said on April 27.
ABC Fact Check investigates.
Topics: federal-government, budget, business-economics-and-finance, chris-bowen, alp, australia
Posted
| UpdatedDuring the 2013 election campaign the Coalition said its first legislative priority in government would be to scrap the carbon tax.
Topics: tax, business-economics-and-finance, environment, environmental-policy, liberals, abbott-tony, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Minerals Resource Rent Tax came into effect in July 2012 to tax "super profits" made by coal and iron ore producers.
Topics: mining-industry, liberals, tax, mining-environmental-issues, abbott-tony, australia, wa
Posted
| UpdatedDuring the 2013 federal election campaign, Tony Abbott said he wanted "a new engagement with Aboriginal people to be one of the hallmarks of an incoming Coalition government".
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, federal-government, liberals, abbott-tony, australia